Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) published in September warnings about the hazards of agrofuels (or biofuels), and is urging the EU to take greater interest in the perceived threats. Earlier, the OECD had raised concerns that biofuels could take a greater toll on the environment than petrol and diesel usage, and could also lead to rises in food prices.

The World Land Trust got in on the act by writing last August in Science that the EU target of biofuels comprising 10 percent of petrol and diesel consumption by 2020 will not effectively result in fewer carbon emissions.

The starkest assessment, however, has been provided by the United Nations. The UN warned in April that a wide-scale changeover to biofuels will be particularly harmful to the world’s poorest people and to farmers who do not own their land. At worst, the UN forecasts, biofueloriented crop cultivation could result in concentrated land ownership that could drive the poorest farmers off their smallholdings and into even deeper poverty.