The November 2011 edition of AEFJN's Forum for Action is now online. It contains articles on the ethical responsibility of the Church on the climate issue, on the clean up of the Ogoniland oil spills, which will take decades, on the spread of Libyan arms in the Sahel, on the production of medicines in Africa and on the EU's attempt to force African countries to sign EPAs.
The national election campaign officially started the 28th October in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), exactly one month ahead of historic presidential and legislative elections, scheduled for November 28 2011. 41 humanitarian and human rights organizations, among them AEFJN, have expressed concern about the high political tension and deteriorating security situation. They have called upon all Congolese and international actors involved to take urgent measures to prevent electoral violence, better protect civilians and ensure credible, free and fair elections.The EU Commission is
required to produce a report on how it intends to deal with indirect effects
induced by biofuels by March 2010. The industry makes pressure to not include
this factor in the calculation of GHG emission from biofuels production. Why?
If emissions from ILUC are accurately calculated, based on the precautionary principle, this will undermine the rationale for the biofuel target as most biofuels do not reduce greenhouse house gas emissions once ILUC is taken into account. A strong ILUC factor will also help to knock out some of the worst biofuel crops.
What is ILUC?
ILUC = indirect land use change
The increasing use of biofuels is resulting in changes in land use as land is given over to growing biofuel crops. Indirect land use change (ILUC) occurs when land that was previously used for food or animal feed is turned over to growing biofuels, displacing the original agriculture on that land to new areas. So, although the biofuel crop itself may not be causing new land clearance directly, it can still be held responsible for displacing other activities into new land.