The newly formed Global Renewable Fuels Alliance has its eyes on shifting international trade and investment rules in favor of producing biofuels.

There is something worrying about this, even though it is simply an extrapolation of existing trends to shift biofuel crop production to countries in the Global South.

The lobbying group's line of argument is that energy security is the South's greatest concern, and biofuels production will increase their energy independence. This is not necessarily the case, however. Nigeria has huge oil reserves, but the local economy does not benefit from cheap energy. Instead the energy simply gets exported to feather some corrupt elite's nest.

The Global Renewable Fuels Alliance also argues that biofuels production will provide much nneded employment opportunities - more than extractives do. Well this is probably true; the oil industry has been notoriously bad at providing commensurate local employment opportunities in Nigeria, and I suspect elsewhere.

If you go to their website at www.globalrfa.org you can see the issues they are preparing to do battle on: the positive angle of economic opportunities for developing countries in biofuel production, and a defensive line on the food vs fuel debate (first generation biofuels use up land for fuel crops that could be producing food crops, so reducing food supply and increasing prices).

Keep an eye on lobbying regarding trade and investment rules; too often these undermine the development of local environmental and human rights protections.

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