Richard George, Roads and Climate Campaigner for campaign for better transport

The Government thinks we need biofuels, not to tackle climate change, but to cater for a predicted increase in demand for car travel. The thinking goes that to achieve economic growth, in line with past behaviour, we can all expect to travel further than we do today, in cars carrying fewer passengers. Instead of trying to correct this, the political path of least resistance is to let it happen.

But that means finding a way to square the circle: to reduce carbon emissions while increasing the amount of driving we do. Hence the fixation with biofuels, electric vehicles and scrappage schemes, which somehow might allow us all to drive further while saving the planet. This, in political terms, would be the Holy Grail: government hits its carbon reductions targets without anyone having to change their behaviour.

That biofuels cause more harm than fossil fuels (to quote a recent Times article) is beside the point. Even if biofuels could provide a carbon-neutral energy source without harming the environment, they’d still be a foolish course to pursue, because climate change is not the only problem transport poses:

    * Last year 2,500 people were killed in road traffic collisions;
    * Around 7,000 people die each year in London alone from respiratory diseases caused by poor air quality (itself caused by the toxic blend of gases belched out of our exhausts); 
    * We all waste countless hours sitting in traffic jams, but no matter how much extra road space we add, it just fills up with more traffic.

So business as usual isn’t an option, even without climate change.

Instead of placing all our eggs in the biofuels basket we should be designing our towns and cities to a human scale, with the services we need close enough to walk or cycle to. We know that decent planning and behavioural change programmes work, because the Government has been piloting them in towns and cities across the UK for several years. The only sustainable way to tackle transport’s carbon footprint is to reduce the need to travel, instead of desperately trying to find ways to accommodate the impacts of car dependant development, with its accompanying pollution and gridlock.

But perhaps the most frustrating feature of biofuels – other than deforestation, impact on indigenous people, the use of food for fuel and all the other problems of biofuels – is that Ministers use them as an excuse for inaction. Hailing biofuels as a panacea means not needing to provide people with alternatives to car use, because biofuels (allegedly) make cars greener. We can keep spending our limited budgets building new roads, instead of on buses, or trams, or on making walking and cycling more attractive, because biofuels will reduce our emissions without us having to do anything. Yet even here Whitehall can’t get it right. Whoever wrote the Department for Transport’s Low Carbon Transport: A Greener Future forgot to account for the carbon produced when growing and transporting fuels. Oops! Biofuels aren’t just the wrong solution: they’re a hindrance to the right one. The only way to unpick this problem is to take biofuels – and all the other false solutions – off the table

Richard George is the Roads and Climate Campaigner for campaign for better transport which is the UK’s leading authority on sustainable transport.

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Josie Cohen, Campaigns Officer

Morning all,

Good to see that biofuels are still on the news agenda - they should be, what with how they can contribute to climate change and increase global hunger!

There's an interesting piece featured on the Reuters UK, EU drafts reveal biofuel's 'environmental damage' which discusses the impact of biofuels on climate change as well as how they take up land which would otherwise be used for crops. Also, it points out that biofuels are not good for species like Orangutans, which is another hard hitting effect of the biofuels 'greenwash'.

So go on, take a look at the article and remind yourself why biofuels should not be part of the UK's renewable energy targets.  Then, if you haven't already, email the Department For Transport asking them to stop the use of biofuels in UK transport. 

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Meredith Alexander, Head of Trade and Corporates

Supporting women farmers will help solve the hunger crisis. ActionAid teamed up with Concern and a parliamentary group to bring this message to MPs and people standing for election. Here’s the speech I gave:

ActionAid works in over 40 countries to help poor people create better lives for themselves and their families. Tackling hunger is one of our biggest priorities.

As the Department for International Development highlights in its hunger paper on the Millennium Development Goals, seventy percent of farmers are women. Many of these women are farming but hungry: they produce less food than their family needs to survive.

But with a little help, these women can move beyond surviving and actually start to thrive.

What does a woman farmer need to thrive? She needs land. She needs good quality seeds. She needs water for her crops and tools for her fields. She needs credit and training to invest in making her farm better. Basically, she needs the same thing any other farmer needs. Unfortunately though, because she is a woman she is much less likely to get them. Women farmers get much less support than men. For example, a study of five African countries showed that men received 10 times as much credit as women farmers.

These are such small things, but if we put them in the hands of women farmers, they can turn around their own lives and help end global hunger.

How do I know this? I know because I have seen what it looks like when a woman thrives as a farmer.

I want to tell you about a woman ActionAid works with in Uganda. Leya Chede is a small holder farmer. 10 years ago her family was so hungry and so poor they couldn’t even afford to buy soap. But now everything is different. Leya’s farm is thriving. She grows four types of crops and has expanded into poultry and goats.

Leya’s family is thriving. They have built a decent house, and now she sends her children to school. Even Leya’s community is improving. She employs other people in the village to work in her farm, giving them a decent income.

And Leya herself? Investing in Leya as a farmer has also helped her gain more control over her life. Her success has given her the confidence to play a bigger role in decision making in her own family. Last October, she even went to the capital to lobby an MP.

All of this was made possible by a very small investment to set up a community seed bank. That money bought better seeds for a range of crops. Leya gets good quality seeds at planting time and then gives up part of her harvest. This small investment made all the difference.

Women have the skills and determination to thrive as farmers. With just a small bit of support like this, women farmers will make the hunger crisis a thing of the past.

Sharon Smee, Women's Rights Officer

Today is International Women’s Day and there is a wealth of activity happening around the world to celebrate.

Here in the UK we had the exciting announcement that Baroness Kinnock will take on a new role leading the Government’s work to tackle violence against women overseas. ActionAid UK have been lobbying for this appointment and it is a fantastic campaign success. Read our press release

We now need to tell the Government what we think this new post should be doing to make sure that violence against women becomes a top international priority.

Baroness Kinnock should:

1.    Make a plan: Develop a comprehensive strategy to tackle international violence against women.

2.    Track progress: Develop indicators for monitoring the Government’s progress on tackling violence against women.

3.    Back up with funding: Ensure the UK’s efforts to tackle violence against women internationally are well-resourced with real commitment from the three departments that matter – the Department for International Development, the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign and Commonwealth office.

On International Women’s Day, let Baroness Kinnock know what you think she should prioritise

I was lucky enough to go to Sierra Leone last week to interview some of our partner organisations. The one that had the most impact on me was a small women’s rights NGO in the North of the country.

I met with Florence at Women’s Action for Human Dignity, which works to combat the massive levels of gender based violence in the community, and supports women to take their cases to court. In January they had already helped over sixteen women who had been raped, the youngest of whom is six. I was impressed not only by their impact at battling such a huge issue but also by their passion.

Florence had personally camped outside the Prime Ministers hotel and successfully received an audience with one of his ministers. The impact of violence on women’s lives is huge, and until it is recognised as such by the international community it will continue to be so.

In the mean time it’s uplifting to meet and be able to support women like Florence who show what can be achieved with little resources and a lot of will power.

Hi folks!

 A bit of a last minute call out, but this is unmissable - 

At 2 pm today, Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will answer your questions about achieving a greener society and proposals to make it easier for people to grow their own food in a live webchat

This is a great opportunity to ask Hilary about biofuels - of course it's up to you what you ask him, but for inspiration, check out our suggested question:

    -   'Since emerging science is proving that biofuels are not a solution to climate change, and they are making it harder for farmers to produce food both here in the UK and the developing world, why is the government increasing biofuel targets in their National Action Plan?'

Do let us know if you get any responses by either tweeting @actionaidliz or email me at agnes.hall@actionaid.org

Details on the webchat:

 - When: This is taking place at 2pm today

 - Where: On the number10.gov.uk website.  Follow the webchat and take part 

 - Background: It's part of a debate on the issue running on Directgov