Experts Highlight Role of Bio-Fuel in Achieving MDGs
Daily Monitor (Addis Ababa)
NEWS
1 August 2007
Posted to the web 1 August 2007
By Dagnachew Teklu
Addis Ababa
Africa must exploit its bio-fuel resources fully and effectively to defeat poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a team of experts underscored at a regional forum on Tuesday.
“Promotion of biofuels industry in developing countries has the capacity to propel such countries to achieve the MDGs through poverty reduction (especially job creation and economic enhancement), health impact and climate change,” the team said in a report presented at a reginal forum of experts in the field of bio-fuel that kicked off at the AU confernce Hall.
The forum is deliberating on the effective and enhanced utilization of biofuel to tackle poverty.
The experts drawn from various African Universities indicated that Africa presents significantly higher biofuel potentials than Europe and even North America and can aid farmers in the continent to earn better income for their produce due to the expanded market of bio-fuel.
According to the report,the majority of African countries that are oil importers can avoid their expenses on oil by utilizing their biofuel resources.
Bio-fuels can reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels and increase energy security.
There is a growing realization in the Africa that high dependency on imported fossil fuels is having a negative impact on the continent’s economic development, the report said.
According to available information, out of 47 of the world’s poorest countries, 38 are net oil importers and the majority of them are from Africa.
A total of 42 countries in Africa are net oil importers vulnerable to the adverse macro-economic (particularly balance of payments) of high oil prices.
This is particularly true as economies of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are oil-dependent, according to the report.
Estimates show that recent changes in the price of oil caused, in some cases, losses as high as 3 % of GDP.
According to the same report, bio-fuels use in Africa is expected to remain as very limited as it is now, reaching to 3.4 Mtoe by 2030.
The report further recommended future policies of Africa to be designed to meet not only the domestic needs but also the growing international biofuels market.
“The AU should be the coordinating body in implementing a common policy for biofuels in Afarica,”the report added.
FAO estimates that there are 379 million hectares of potential arable land available, of which only 43 million are utilized for food production in the countries forming the ‘Pan-African association of Non-Oil Producing Countries’ alone and varied nature of the feedstock’s available in Africa to produce biofuels.
