UN FAO says wood energy a bad substitute for fossil fuels

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned, in a paper presented at the FAO Conference, against the excessive use of wood energy as an alternative fuel strategy. The report said that fuelwood and charcoal supply as much as 70 percent of the energy needs of developing nations, and supply two billion people with energy for cooking and heating. The report warned against the dangers of deforestation.

The head of the FAO recently spoke on the food vs. fuel controversy, saying “FAO strongly feels that food security and environmental considerations must be fully addressed before making investments or policy decisions, and we are actively working to ensure this happens. However, a moratorium that ignores the potential of biofuels to support rural development and assist the economies of developing countries would not, in our view, be a constructive approach to this topic.”

The FAO head, Jeff Tschirley, said that the description of biofuels as a “crime against humanity” by Dr. Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur on The Right to Food, was regrettable.

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