Two women fill sacks of charcoal made in mud igloos in the small town of San Juan Evangelista Analco in the mountains of the state of Oaxaca in southwestern Mexico. A group of women from this Zapotec indigenous village created a charcoal company in 2017, to take advantage of the wood that the community logs sustainably. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy/IPS

By Emilio Godoy
OAXACA, Mexico, Apr 10 2020 (IPS)

Rosa Manzano carefully arranges pieces of wood in a big mud igloo that, seven days after it is full, will produce charcoal of high caloric content.

“Our forest also produces oak, which in the past was only sold as firewood and had little value. But with forest management and the work of women who have organised, we began this project,” Manzano told IPS, as she stacked the pieces of wood neatly and without leaving empty spaces inside the large igloo-shaped ovens.

Manzano belongs to the “Ka Niulas Yanni” – “active women” in the Zapotec language – Group of Women Charcoal Producers. The organisation was founded in 2017 by 10 women and two men in San Juan Evangelista Analco, a Zapotec indigenous municipality of fewer than 500 people, located in the northern highlands of the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca.

With financing from the government’s National Forestry Commission, the women built seven eight-cubic-meter igloo-shaped ovens and set up a warehouse for their community logging project. Under a 10-year plan that began in 2013, the community can extract 1,500 cubic meters of oak wood annually to make furniture and sell wood.

The charcoal makers light the ovens through a hole called a “rozadera”, and through a similar hole they check the progress of the fire and then block up the entrance with mud bricks. As the fire descends through the structure, smoke spews from the igloo’s “ears”.

“We work hard, because there is a market for charcoal, but being pioneers involves an effort,” says Manzano, a married mother of one, whose workday starts very early and ends mid-afternoon. She also works in the restaurant at a community-owned ecotourism site.

The women fire up the ovens twice a month, to produce 23-kg bags of black charcoal, which they sell for about five dollars a sack.

Wasted bioenergy

Despite these local initiatives, Mexico is wasting the potential of bioenergy, especially solid biofuels, including all forms of energy from different kinds of biomass.

This alternative source represents 10 percent of final energy consumption, with 23 million users of bioenergy for cooking (especially in rural areas), 10 million for heating (mainly in urban areas), 100,000 small factories and 100 medium and large ones, according to the Thematic Network on Bioenergy (RTB), an association of bioenergy researchers and entrepreneurs.

In Mexico, Latin America’s second-largest economy, almost 19 million tons of dry waste are produced and consumed annually in the residential sector for cooking, heating and water heating.

The installed capacity totals about 400 megawatts, based on raw materials such as firewood for domestic and industrial use, bagasse, charcoal and biogas.

Industrial uses of biomass are gaining ground in Mexico, such as the sawmill of the Sezaric Industrial Group, owned by the General Emiliano Zapata Union of Ejidos and Forest Communities, located in the municipality of Santiago Papasquiaro, in the state of Durango in northern Mexico. At the facility, forest waste fires the boiler that dries the wood and generates electricity. CREDIT: Emilio Godoy/IPS

The country also generates some 70 million tons of organic waste per year, which can be used in this area.

In terms of electricity generation, the sector’s contribution is modest – 894 gigawatt-hours (Gwh) – compared to other alternative sources of energy. In the first quarter of 2019, gross generation totaled 80,225 Gwh, up from 78,167 in the same period last year. Gas-fired combined cycle plants produced 40,094, conventional thermal power plants 9,306 and coal-fired plants 6,265.

Hydroelectric plants accounted for 5,137 Gwh, wind farms 4,285, nuclear plants 2,382 and solar stations 1,037.

One technology that is expanding is the biodigester, for the treatment of manure and agricultural waste to obtain biogas and electricity. Some 900 of these operate in rural areas. Of this total, around 300 generate electricity, according to the state-run Shared Risk Trust.

In this country of 130 million people, around 19 million use solid fuels for cooking, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography. The main material consumed by 79 percent of these households is LPG, followed by firewood or coal (11 percent) and natural gas (seven percent).

In the southwestern state of Oaxaca, gas and firewood each represent 49 percent of household consumption.

“It is a renewable energy that is largely untapped in the areas of agriculture, urban waste and industry,” said Abel Reyes, president of the non-governmental Mexican Association of Biomass and Biogas.

The expert stressed to IPS that if the country were to develop the sector’s value chain, it would be equivalent to five or six points of GDP, with energy, economic, labour, health and climate benefits.

While bioethanol and biodiesel have boomed over the past decade, their growth now seems to be slowing down due to high costs compared to alternative sources and to competition with food crops.

Teresa Arias, president of the non-governmental organisation Nature and Development, noted that the industrial sector is interested in using waste to fire boilers, while households, hospitals, restaurants and hotels can use pellets of agglomerated sawdust.

“The most viable variables are determined by the market. It has a lot to do with competitiveness against fossil fuels. Solid biomass does not compete with natural gas, and in hotel heating it could compete with liquefied petroleum gas,” she told IPS.

The environmentalist said that “there is enough biomass for electricity, its costs just have to be lower or equal to those of the fuel they currently use. But it couldn’t compete with solar, although mixed systems could be installed.”

Forest and jungle management, agro-industrial residues, forest plantations, sugar cane and agricultural waste offer the greatest biomass potential. Replacing fossil fuels with bioenergy and solid biofuels would mean savings of some 6.7 billion dollars a year, in addition to social and environmental benefits, according to the RTB.

Although Mexico has adopted ambitious goals for bioenergy, the pro-fossil fuel policies of leftist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in office since December 2018, have clouded the picture, according to analysts.

The 2017 “Biogas Technology Roadmap” predicts production of between 32 million and 120 million cubic meters of biomethane per year from animal waste by 2024, and 57 million to 100 million by 2030, in the face of barriers such as low production attractiveness and lack of project financing.

With respect to solid biofuels in 2030, the map projects 160 petajoules of energy, 130 of which would correspond to households, 20 to the commercial sector and 10 to government institutions. The joule is the energy measurement unit that is equivalent to one watt per second and estimates the amount of heat required to carry out an activity. Each petajoule represents one quadrillion joules.

Arias, the environmentalist, who is preparing diagnoses of biomass in the north of the country, said the outlook is discouraging, because “there is no defined and determined policy for pushing alternative energies.

“They’re taking a position that looks to the past instead of the future; they’re taking steps backwards after many efforts to have a diverse energy mix that would make us less vulnerable, and to transition to climate benefits,” she said.

In this context, she proposed incentives for their use in households and businesses; adapting commercial technologies to the conditions in Mexico; increasing the efficiency of supply chains; disseminating the benefits of bioenergy; implementing favourable policies for this sources; and designing programmes for rural areas.

For his part, Reyes, from the Biomass Association, called for the design of regional and local policies, aimed at boosting the use of bioenergy with adequate financial support.

Meanwhile, the charcoal makers of San Juan Evangelista know what they want: to take care of the forest, foment self-employment and consolidate their organisation and thus their community.

“We are trying to earn an income, but we are working precisely because we know it has a future. We’ve tried to organise ourselves as women, because in the social sphere it’s difficult to get out,” Manzano said during the day that IPS accompanied their activities in this town, 48 km from Oaxaca, the state capital, and 540 km from Mexico City.

Along with other Oaxacan community-owned companies, the group offers its products on new digital platforms.

Some say the government does not support initiatives like those of her group, but Manzano and her colleagues are confident that wood and charcoal will continue to be available in Mexican kitchens thanks to sustainable efforts like theirs.

Driven by solar and wind, world investments in renewable energy leapt in 2014. Photo credit: Jürgen from Sandesneben, Germany/Licensed under CC BY 2.0

By Sean Buchanan
ROME, Mar 31 2015 (IPS)

Driven by solar and wind, world investments in renewable energy reversed a two-year dip last year, brushing aside the challenge from sharply lower oil prices and registering a 17 percent leap over the previous year to stand at 270 billion dollars.

These investments helped see an additional 103Gw of generating capacity – roughly that of all U.S. nuclear plants combined –around the world, making 2014 the best year ever for newly-installed capacity, according to the 9th annual “Global Trends in Renewable Energy Investments” report from the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) released Mar. 31.

Prepared by the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre and Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the report says that a continuing sharp decline in technology costs – particularly in solar but also in wind – means that every dollar invested in renewable energy bought significantly more generating capacity in 2014."Climate-friendly energy technologies are now an indispensable component of the global energy mix and their importance will only increase as markets mature, technology prices continue to fall and the need to rein in carbon emissions becomes ever more urgent" – Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP

In what was called “a year of eye-catching steps forward for renewable energy”, the report notes that wind, solar, biomass and waste-to-power, geothermal, small hydro and marine power contributed an estimated 9.1 percent of world electricity generation in 2014, up from 8.5 percent in 2013.

This, says the report, means that the world’s electricity systems emitted 1.3 gigatonnes of CO2 – roughly twice the emissions of the world’s airline industry – less than it would have if that 9.1 percent had been produced by the same fossil-dominated mix generating the other 90.9 percent of world power.

“Once again in 2014, renewables made up nearly half of the net power capacity added worldwide,” said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP. “These climate-friendly energy technologies are now an indispensable component of the global energy mix and their importance will only increase as markets mature, technology prices continue to fall and the need to rein in carbon emissions becomes ever more urgent.”

China saw by far the biggest renewable energy investments last year – a record 83.3 billion dollars, up 39 percent from 2013. The United States was second at 38.3 billion dollars, up seven percent on the year (although below its all-time high reached in 2011). Third came Japan at 35.7 billion dollars, 10 percent higher than in 2013 and its biggest total ever.

According to the report, a prominent feature of 2014 was the rapid expansion of renewables into new markets in developing countries, where investments jumped 36 percent to 131.3 billion dollars. China with 83.3 billion, Brazil (7.6 billion), India (7.4 billion) and South Africa (5.5 billion) were all in the top 10 investing countries, while more than one billion dollars was invested in Indonesia, Chile, Mexico, Kenya and Turkey.

Although 2014 was said to be a turnaround year for renewables after two years of shrinkage, multiple challenges remain in the form of policy uncertainty, structural issues in the electricity system and even the very nature of wind and solar generation which are dependent on breeze and sunlight.

Another challenge, says the report, is the impact of the more than 50 percent collapse in oil prices in the second half of last year.  However, according to Udo Steffens, President of the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, the price of oil is only likely to dampen investor confidence in parts of the sector, such as solar in oil-exporting countries and biofuels in most parts of the world.

“Oil and renewables do not directly compete for power investment dollars,” said Steffens. “Wind and solar sectors should be able to carry on flourishing, particularly if they continue to cut costs per MWh. Their long-term story is just more convincing.”

Of greater concern is the erosion of investor confidence caused by increasing uncertainty surrounding government support policies for renewables.

“Europe was the first mover in clean energy, but it is still in a process of restructuring those early support mechanisms,” according to Michael Liebreich, Chairman of the Advisory Board for Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “In the United Kingdom and Germany we are seeing a move away from feed-in tariffs and green certificates, towards reverse auctions and subsidy caps, aimed at capping the cost of the transition to consumers.

“Southern Europe is still almost a no-go area for investors because of retroactive policy changes, most recently those affecting solar farms in Italy. In the United States there is uncertainty over the future of the Production Tax Credit for wind, but costs are now so low that the sector is more insulated than in the past. Meanwhile the rooftop solar sector is becoming unstoppable.”

A media release announcing publication of the UNEP report said that if the positive investment trends of 2014 are to continue, “it is increasingly clear that major electricity market reforms will be needed of the sort that Germany is now attempting with its Energiewende [energy transition].”

The structural challenges to be overcome are not simple,” it added, “but are of the sort that have only arisen because of the very success of renewables and their over two trillion dollars of investment mobilised since 2004.”

Edited by Phil Harris    

Africa is experiencing a revolution towards cleaner energy through renewable energy but the story has hardly been told to the world, says Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

Steiner, who had been advocating for renewable energy at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Lima, said Africa is on the right path toward a low carbon footprint by tapping into its plentiful renewable resources – hydro, geothermal, solar and wind.

Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director. Credit: Wambi Michael/IPS

“There is a revolution going on in the continent of Africa and the world is not noticing it. You can go to Egypt, Ethiopia Kenya, Namibia, and Mozambique. I think we will see renewable energy being the answer to Africa’s energy problems in the next fifteen years,” Steiner said in an interview with IPS.

Sharing the example of the UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, Steiner told IPS that the decision was taken that “if UNEP is going to be centred with its offices in the African continent on the Equator, there can be reason why we are not using renewable energy. So we installed photovoltaic panels on our roof which we share with UN Habitat, 1200 people, and we produce 750,000 kilowatt hours of electricity every year, that is enough for the entire building to operate.”

He noted that although it will take UNEP between eight and 10 years to pay off the installation, UNEP will have over 13 years of electricity without paying monthly or annual power bills. “It is the best business proposition that a U.N. body has ever made in terms of paying for electricity for a building,” he said.

According to Steiner, the “revolution” is already happening in East Africa, especially in Kenya and Ethiopia which are both targeting renewable energy, especially geothermal energy.

“Kenya plans to triple its electricity generation up to about 6000 megawatts in the next five years. More than 90 percent of the planned power is to come from geothermal, solar and wind power,” he said. “If you are in Africa and decide to exploit your wind, solar and geothermal resources, you will get yourself freedom from the global energy markets, and you will connect the majority of your people without waiting for thirty years until the power lines cross every corner of the country” – Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director

Kenya currently runs a geothermal power development corporation which invites tenders from private investors bid and is establishing a wind power firm likely to be the largest in Africa with a capacity of 350 megawatts of power under a public-private partnership.

In Ethiopia, expansion of the Aluto-Langano geothermal power plant will increase geothermal generation capacity from the current 7 MW to 70 MW. The expansion project is being financed by the Ethiopian government (10 million dollars), a 12 million dollar grant from the Government of Japan, and a 13 million dollar loan from the World Bank.

Renewable energy has costs but also benefits

Phillip Hauser, Vice President of GDF Suez Energy Latin America, told IPS that geothermal power is a good option for countries in Africa with that potential, but it comes with risks.

“It is very site-dependent. There can be geothermal projects that are relatively cost efficient and there are others that are relatively expensive. It is a bit like the oil and gas industry. You have to find the resource and you have to develop the resource. Sometimes you might drill and you don’t find anything – that is lost investment,” Hauser told IPS.

Steiner admitted that like any other investment, renewable energy has some limitations, including the need for upfront initial capital and the cost of technology, but he said that countries with good renewable energy policies would attract the necessary private investments.

“We are moving in a direction where Africa will not have to live in a global fuel market in which one day you have to pay 120 dollars for a barrel of crude oil, then the next day you get it at 80 dollars and before you know it, it is doubled,” he said.

“So if you are in Africa and decide to exploit your wind, solar and geothermal resources, you will get yourself freedom from the global energy markets, and you will connect the majority of your people without waiting for thirty years until the power lines cross every corner of the country,”Steiner added.

A recent assessment by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) of Africa’s renewable energy future found that solar and wind power potential existed in at least 21 countries, and biomass power potential in at least 14 countries.

The agency, which supports countries in their transition to a sustainable energy future, has yet to provide a list of countries with geothermal power potential but almost all the countries around the Great Rift Valley in south-eastern Africa – Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania among others – have already identified geothermal sites, with Kenya being the first to use a geothermal site to add power to its grid.

Adnan Amin, Director-General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Credit: Wambi Michael/IPS

IRENA Director-General Adnan Z. Amin told IPS that the agency’s studies shows that not only can renewable energy meet the world’s rising demand, but it can do so more cheaply, while contributing to limiting global warming to under 2 degrees Celsius – the widely-cited tipping point in the climate change debate.

He said the good news in Africa is that apart from the resources that exist, there is a growing body of knowledge across African expert institutions that would help the continent to exploit its virgin renewable energy potential.

What is needed now, he explained, is for countries in Africa to develop the economic case for those resources supported by targeted government policies to help developers and financiers get projects off the ground.

The IRENA assessment found that in 2010, African countries imported 18 billion dollars’ worth of oil – more than the entire amount they received in foreign aid – while oil subsidies in Africa cost an estimated 50 billion dollars every year.

New financing models for renewable energy

According to Amin, renewable energy technologies are now the most economical solution for off-grid and mini-grid electrification in remote areas, as well as for grid extension in some cases of centralised grid supply.

He argued that rapid technological progress, combined with falling costs, a better understanding of financial risk and a growing appreciation of wider benefits mean that renewable energy would increasingly be the solution to Africa’s energy problem.

In this context, Africa could take on new financing models that “de-risk” investments in order to lower the cost of capital, which has historically been a major barrier to investment in renewable energy, and one such model would include encouragement for green bonds.

“Green bonds are the recent innovation for renewable energy investments,” said Amin. “Last year we reached about 14 billion dollars, this year there is an estimate of about 40 billion, and next year there is an estimate of about 100 billion dollars in green finance through green bonds. Why doesn’t Africa take advantage of those?” he asked.

During the conference in Lima, activist groups have been urging an end to dependence on fossil fuel- and nuclear-powered energy systems, calling for investment and policies geared toward building clean, sustainable, community-based energy solutions.

“We urgently need to decrease our energy consumption and push for a just transition to community-controlled renewable energy if we are to avoid devastating climate change,” said Susann Scherbarth, a climate justice and energy campaigner with Friends of the Earth Europe.

Godwin Ojo, Executive Director of Friends of the Earth Nigeria, told IPS that “we urgently need a transition to clean energy in developing countries and one of the best incentives is globally funded feed-in tariffs for renewable energy.”

He said policies that support feed-in tariffs and decentralized power sources should be embraced by both the most- and the least-developed nations.

Backed by a new discussion paper on a ‘global renewable energy support programme’ from the What Next Forum, activists called for decentralised energy systems – including small-scale wind, solar, biomass mini-grids communities that are not necessarily connected to a national electricity transmission grid.

(Edited by Phil Harris)

The 5 de Septiembre sugar mill in the Cuban province of Cienfuegos. A subsidiary of the Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht is taking part in upgrading the plant, which will include construction of a bioenergy plant run on sugarcane bagasse. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Sep 26 2014 (IPS)

Cuba’s sugar industry hopes to become the main source of clean energy in the country as part of a programme to develop renewable sources aimed at reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels and protecting the environment.

The project forms part of the plans for upgrading and modernising sugar mills that have been opened up to foreign investment by Azcuba, the government business group that replaced the Sugar Ministry in 2011. Traditionally, sugar mills have generated electricity for their own consumption, using bagasse, the fibrous matter that remains after sugarcane stalks are crushed to extract their juice.

In a conversation with Tierramérica, Azcuba spokesman Liobel Pérez defended the production of energy using bagasse as a cheap, environmentally friendly alternative. “The CO2 [carbon dioxide] produced in the generation of electricity is the same amount that the sugar cane absorbs when it grows, which means there is an environmental balance.”

For now, the production of ethanol as a by-product of sugarcane is not being considered in Cuba, although some experts argue that the biofuel could reduce consumption of gasoline by farm machinery and transportation and thus limit atmospheric emissions.

“That is one of the issues being discussed and analysed by the government commission created to study the development of renewable energies,” said Manuel Díaz, director of the Cuban Institute of Research on Sugar Cane Derivatives. The official did not, however, rule out the possibility in the future.

“Even if it is not the definitive long-term solution to the consumption of automotive fuel, ethanol is an important factor and contributes to reducing fossil fuel use, and if it does not run counter to the use of land for food, it could be, it seems to me, an alternative that each country should analyse depending on its specific characteristics,” Díaz said.

A worker at the Jesús Rabí sugar mill in the Cuban province of Matanzas. The plant’s biomass will help increase electricity production from clean sources of energy in Cuba. Credit: Jorge Luis Baños/IPS

The sugar industry currently accounts for 3.5 percent of electricity generation in this Caribbean island nation. A target of the plan to boost energy efficiency is for around 20 sugar mills to generate a surplus of 755 MW by 2030, to go into the national power grid.

That would raise the proportion of electricity produced by sugarcane biomass to 14 percent by 2030. The overall aim is for 24 percent of energy to come from renewable sources, including wind power (six percent), solar (three percent), and hydropower (one percent).

Currently, renewable energy sources only represent 4.6 percent of electricity generation; the rest comes from fossil fuels.

The gradual installation in the sugar mills of modern bioelectric plants needed to achieve that goal requires an estimated investment of 1.29 billion dollars, which Azcuba hopes to obtain from government loans or foreign investment.

“If we don’t find a loan we will get foreign investment,” said Jorge Lodos, business director for Zerus SA, a subsidiary of Azcuba. The executive told Tierramérica that the first two companies to enter into partnership with Cuba in the sector included the bioelectric plants in their plans, to boost energy efficiency.

The first of the plants that run on sugarcane biomass will begin to produce energy in 2016, Lodos said. It is to be built near the Ciro Redondo sugar mill in the province of Ciego de Ávila, 423 km from Havana, by Biopower, a joint venture established in 2012 by Cuba’s state-run Zerus and the British firm Havana Energy Ltd.

During the December to May harvest season, the plant will use sugarcane bagasse from the nearby sugar mill. The rest of the year it will use stored sugarcane waste and marabú (Dichrostachys cinérea), a woody shrub that has invaded vast areas of farmland in Cuba. The projected investment ranges between 45 and 55 million dollars.

Meanwhile, the Compañía de Obras e Infraestructura (COI), a subsidiary of Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, reached an agreement with the Empresa Azucarera Cienfuegos, another Azcuba subsidiary, to jointly administer the 5 de Septiembre sugar mill in the province of Cienfuegos, 256 km from the capital, for 13 years.

In this case, the commitment is to bring the productive capacity of the sugar mill back up to 90,000 tons of sugar per harvest, or even higher.
Lodos said investment in the project would surpass 100 million dollars, and would also include the construction of a bioenergy plant.

These two sugar mills and the Jesús Rabí mill in the province of Matanzas, 98 km from Havana, will generate the first 140 MW of electricity in the medium term.

Havana Energy and COI opened the door to foreign capital in Cuba’s sugar industry, just as investment has already been welcomed in other sectors of this country’s centralised economy. “Foreign investment requires mutual trust,” Lodos said.

The socialist government of Raúl Castro estimates that the country needs between two and 2.5 billion dollars a year in foreign capital in order to grow and develop.

Of Cuba’s 56 sugar mills, six of which are now inactive, Azcuba has opened up 20 to foreign investment. The initial priorities are the eight built after the 1959 revolution.

Although ethanol production is not among the plans to be offered to foreign investors, many experts believe prospects for selling the fuel are good.

“It is not expected to be included in the programme,” Lodos said. “None of the minimum conditions required to introduce foreign investment are in place. It would not involve large amounts of capital or technology contribution, and it would not be for export or to replace imports. Today it isn’t on the business menu. But it might be tomorrow.”

Cuba produces alcohol in 11 distilleries, which are also to be upgraded, for pharmaceutical use and the industry that produces rum and other alcohol.

Cuba’s once-powerful sugar industry, which produced harvests of up to eight million tons, hit bottom in the 2009-2010 season when output plunged to 1.1 million tones – the lowest level in 105 years.

The industry currently represents around five percent of the country’s inflow of foreign exchange.

The hope is that the modernisation of factories, machinery, transport equipment and other resources will boost yields and bolster production, along with the increase in the planting of sugarcane. Last year 400,000 hectares were planted and production in the 2013-2014 harvest amounted to over 1.6 million tons.

This story was originally published by Latin American newspapers that are part of the Tierramérica network.

Edited by Estrella Gutiérrez/Translated by Stephanie Wildes

Hundreds of Liberians have filed a complaint accusing a U.S. government agency of failure to carry out due diligence or ensure that safeguards were followed for investments made to a failed biomass project in Liberia.

From 2009 to 2011, the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) made three loans to a Dutch-registered company, Buchanan Renewables, that aimed to replant a mature rubber plantation in Liberia and use the old trees to run a new biomass-fired power plant, which the company also wanted to build. The OPIC loans, totalling around 217 million dollars, constituted 70 percent of the project’s total costs.“This so-called development project destroyed livelihoods and drove communities deeper into extreme poverty.” -- Francis Colee

The scheme, which has since failed, was initially described as a climate-friendly, pro-poor attempt to resuscitate Liberia’s rubber industry while powering its economy. Yet according to the new complaint, filed Wednesday, the project was rife with abuses.

Further, the complainants say the company’s sudden withdrawal has resulted in hundreds of local community members being unable to support themselves or their families. OPIC investigations, they say, should have flagged these and other potential problems, and they are now calling on the agency to offer reparations.

“Because of OPIC’s role in this project, people in Liberia are actively suffering from hunger and environmental damage that has been catastrophic to their livelihoods,” Natalie Bridgeman Fields, the executive director of Accountability Counsel, a watchdog group representing some of the Liberians party to the complaint, told IPS.

According to the complaint, OPIC oversight should have realised that the Buchanan Renewables plan would prevent local farmers and charcoal producers from making an independent living once the project got underway. While locals did sign contracts to tend to the new rubber trees and do related work, this set-up also made them entirely dependent on the company.

“OPIC, in violation of its social and environmental rules, failed to require an appropriate level of due diligence regarding [Buchanan Renewables’] operations in Liberia,” the complaint, addressed to OPIC President Elizabeth Littlefield, states, “and did not take adequate action to stop or remedy the harm experienced” as a result of the company’s activities.

OPIC has adopted a series of social and environmental safeguards, created by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private-sector arm, that should protect against such situations. Yet rights groups say the system appears to have broken down.

“This so-called development project destroyed livelihoods and drove communities deeper into extreme poverty,” Francis Colee, of Green Advocates International, a Liberian group representing those party to the new complaint, said Wednesday. Another Green Advocates representative, Alfred Brownell, noted the project “left behind a legacy of abuse”.

No contingency

The Buchanan Renewables biomass project in Liberia revolved around an old rubber plantation previously owned by Firestone, the global tire manufacturer. While the plantation’s trees were considered past their prime, locals continued to tap the trees or convert them into charcoal, a critical energy source for the country.

The Buchanan plan, which also had some backing from the Swedish government and investors, entailed cutting down and replanting these trees, with the old wood made into chips to be burned and converted to electricity. However, the company moved to cut down the trees before the Liberian government decided whether to permit the construction of the new power plant.

Eventually the government decided not to allow the permit and, faced with a collapsed business plan, by the beginning of 2013 Buchanan Renewables suddenly pulled out completely (a full report was released in March 2013 by the Dutch watchdog group SOMO). The company, previously owned by the Geneva-based McCall MacBain Foundation, was subsequently dissolved.

In retrospect, there appears to have been no contingency planning by the company in case the power plant construction wasn’t allowed. And evidently, OPIC didn’t enforce such a requirement, either.

“We see it as OPIC’s job now to fix this situation,” Accountability Counsel’s Fields says. “But we’ve been talking to the agency for a year and they’ve only delayed, showing very little interest in what they’ve done wrong.”

In an accompanying report released Wednesday, Accountability Counsel says that OPIC did express some interest in exploring some form of reparations in November. But the groups said it decided to go forward with the complaint after “numerous attempts to engage” since November “did not result in a commitment from OPIC to engage in a process for discussing remedy”.

The complaint outlines two types of problems, those that took place during the Buchanan project and the ongoing impacts of the company’s sudden withdrawal. The complainants outline flagrant labour violations, including allegations of systemic sexual abuse against female workers.

“We were forced to work under terrible conditions without safe drinking water or proper safety equipment, leading to illness and serious injuries,” Sam Yeadieh, a representative for the former workers, said in a statement. “We were not paid what we had earned, and women were abused on the job.”

Since the company’s departure, rights groups say the young rubber trees have died, the woodchips have poisoned local water supplies, and livelihoods have been ruined. The charcoal producers, meanwhile, have been forced to start cutting into the surrounding forests for fresh product – a process that both negates the project’s intended climate impacts and may have led to a significant national price spike in charcoal prices.

Limited liability

OPIC says that is aware of the “unconfirmed allegations” around the Buchanan Renewables project and is currently working to determine what “additional steps it may take”.

“One of OPIC’s driving principles is positive development impact, and we regularly monitor OPIC-supported projects to ensure that all appropriate protections are in place to support this principle,” Charles Stadtlander, a press representative for OPIC, told IPS.

“While Liberia is a post-conflict country with a challenging social and economic operating environment, the Buchanan project was subject to these same protections. OPIC’s support of this project ended in January 2013 after its loan was repaid and the contract concluded.”

Accountability Counsel’s Fields says that OPIC’s accountability rules are limited, with the agency seeing the repayment of loans as essentially ending its liability. Yet she also notes that OPIC’s role is set to increase significantly around a spate of new U.S.-led electrification projects in Africa, and that the Liberia experience thus offers important lessons.

“This really calls into question whether OPIC can be trusted at all for investments on development and positive climate impacts,” she says. “Faced with a project that should have been an obvious alert, they dropped the ball. There’s no reason they should now be trusted with any project without additional oversight.”

Consumer advocates and environmentalists this week are taking advantage of an industry conference to highlight concerns over the U.S. government’s pending approval of a genetically modified eucalyptus tree.

Technician Christine Berry checks on futuristic peach and apple “orchards”. Each dish holds tiny experimental trees grown from lab-cultured cells to which researchers have given new genes. Credit: USDA Agricultural Research Service

The project proposal is currently being weighed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). If approved, it would constitute the first time that a bioengineered tree has been authorised for commercial production in the United States.

On Tuesday, activists at the International Union of Forest Research Organization (IUFRO) Tree Biotechnology Conference, taking place throughout the week in North Carolina, engaged in what organisers say is the largest protest ever carried out against genetically engineered (GE) trees.

According to demonstrators, the public currently has a potent opportunity to weigh in on the issue.

“Given that this project hasn’t been approved yet for commercial release, we still have a chance to prevent the contamination of our forests,” Tom Llewellyn, a coordinator with REAL Cooperative, a North Carolina-based advocacy group, told IPS.

“This is really important in part because it’s very different from the genetically engineered foods that we’re already subject to here in the U.S. In this situation, we actually have a chance to stop something before it’s too late.”

The proposal, by a company called ArborGen, is for a eucalyptus tree that has been genetically modified to be resistant to colder temperatures. If the government allows for its commercialisation, the plan is for the tree to be grown on plantations in the southeastern United States and subsequently burned for “biomass” electricity production.

The use of GE trees for biomass production is a central focus of this week’s IUFRO conference, aimed at “addressing the growing need for sustainable, renewable sources of biomass, in the face of climate change”, according to the event website. (Further clouding the issue, scientists have pointed out that biomass can be as carbon-intensive as coal-fired electricity production.)

The result, ArborGen says, would be a renewable energy source in line with evolving commitments towards mitigating human-caused climate change. Indeed, such an aim would also be directly in line with a new plan, released by the U.S. government last year, to significantly bolster the U.S. “bioeconomy”, with a central priority placed on genetic engineering.

“It is important to note that this international conference has brought together some of the most prominent scientists in the world to discuss the concerns of an increasing global demand for wood, fuel and fibre,” an ArborGen spokesperson told IPS.

“ArborGen sees great promise in eucalyptus as a hardwood species to mitigate the pressure to harvest our natural forests. As we go through a very stringent federal regulatory process, we are confident that the science has and will show this tree can be a useful tool for landowners to help meet this demand.”

Cross-pollination

ArborGen explains that it chose a Brazilian species of eucalyptus because it is fast growing and yields a relatively massive amount of wood per hectare. The tree is not native to the United States, however, and had been unable to withstand frosts in most of the country.

Critics of the plan have pointed out that eucalyptus trees are known to be invasive, water-intensive and a notorious fire hazard. Beyond this, however, the project has reignited longstanding worries about whether farmers or plantation managers can actually keep genetically engineered products permanently separated from other areas.

“Many people are particularly concerned about the transmutation of our forests, as we’ve already seen this with GE food crops, particularly annual crops like corn and soy,” Llewellyn says. “Now, the idea of doing the same around forests is very concerning.”

While accidental cross-pollination would not be a concern for the U.S. with non-native eucalyptus, Llewellyn says that other GE projects currently under development are seeking to modify native trees, including poplar and pine. These modifications would seek both to make the trees resistant to certain chemical pesticides and to include natural pesticides within the trees.

“What this means is that every cell of that tree would become a pesticide, and that includes the pollen,” he says.

“We estimate that a GE poplar tree could cross-pollinate with other trees 100 miles away, so the potential for contamination would be very high. In turn, this could have a significant impact on insects and on birds eating those insects. While the ultimate effect is not certain, the potential for harm would seem to be very high.”

The difficulties of maintaining control over the “contamination” of natural plants due to cross-pollination with GE products was recently given a surprising boost. On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that an Oregon farmer found growing in his field a type of GE wheat that has never been commercially released.

The leak is reportedly still being investigated. But media reports suggest that the wheat’s manufacturer, Monsanto, carried out field tests of the product in Oregon between 1999 and 2001.

“This outbreak … confirms our concerns that GE crops cannot be controlled,” Janet Cotter, a scientist with Greenpeace International, an advocacy group, said Thursday.

“This is the latest in a long line of incidents involving the contamination of our food supply with GE crops not approved for human consumption. The only way to protect our food and environment is to stop the releases of GE crops to the environment – including a ban on field trials.”

99% rejected

Around a quarter-million of ArborGen’s eucalyptus trees have been planted in field tests since 2010, after a lawsuit by a coalition of environmental and public safety groups failed to halt the process. While the USDA has issued multiple assurances on the trees’ safety to both humans and environmental systems, it is now weighing whether to allow the trees to become commercially available.

Though relatively little is known of public opinion on this issue, the USDA’s own certification process has suggested widespread opposition. The USDA received over 37,580 comments to the ArborGen petition by the end of the comment period on Apr. 29. Only four of the comments were supportive of the release of GE eucalyptus trees.

Of course, the public discussion here on genetically modified products has been far more active around food products. According a 2010 poll, just one in five people in the United States feel that genetically modified foods are safe, while a recent public comment period on whether the U.S. government should approve GE salmon garnered some 1.5 million responses.

Meanwhile, the USDA has not yet released a timeframe on when it will decide on ArborGen’s frost-resistant eucalyptus, but observers expect a verdict by the end of the year.

Solar panels light up the night on this avenue in the Haitian capital. Credit: Jean Reniteau/IPS

By Patricia Grogg
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Apr 4 2013 (IPS)

While Jean Reniteau mulls over the idea of using solar panels to light his house, Frantz Fanfan is wondering how to expand production of biomass briquettes to replace the use of charcoal in the cooking stoves of most of the Haitian people, who lack electricity.

“At home we have a ban on cooking with charcoal. We have to put an end to this custom,” says Reniteau, a social communicator and university professor, while Fanfan, manager of a briquette factory producing ecologically friendly fuel in Port-au-Prince, says he wants to “stop deforestation” and aspires to flood the local market with his products.

Reniteau does not know how long it will take to make his dream a reality. “There’s a company that sells and installs the panels. According to my calculations, it would cost me about 1,550 dollars. I’ll buy what I need little by little,” he tells IPS, explaining that his monthly income, equivalent to about 800 dollars, leaves him no other option.

Renewable energy is making headway and its progress should be irreversible. Toussaint Louverture Avenue, one of the main arteries of Port-au-Prince, is illuminated at night by solar street lights, as are other public spaces in the capital city and some towns in the country.

The Fondation Nouvelle Grand’Anse, a local NGO, reached an agreement with Cubasolar to create in Dekade, five kilometres from the southwestern city of Jérémie, a centre of reference on renewable energy for the surrounding region and the whole country.

“At present, our department (province) of Grand’Anse and the entire southwestern area have been declared a national priority,” activist Maxime Roumer, the head of the foundation, tells IPS. Over 250 street lamps are in the process of being installed in that region, which is slated to benefit from the use of biogas and other forms of clean energy.

The main challenge in this impoverished country is to provide alternatives to charcoal, which represents 72 percent of national energy consumption. The fact that it is used daily by the majority of the people, who have no electric power, means that today forests cover only two percent of the country’s territory, creating a severe soil erosion problem.

“If we don’t stop indiscriminate tree felling, in future even the mango trees we still have in our fields will be cut down and converted to charcoal,” says Fanfan, who argues that briquettes are the best choice for families to be able to cook their meals without harming the environment and people’s health.

He points out that the briquettes are a cheap fuel, costing less than charcoal and propane gas, and are non-polluting and help eliminate city waste. “We are contributing to cleanliness in the country,” he said.

El Fuego del Sol‘s factory produces 5,000 briquettes a day with a manually operated machine. The ingredients are basically cardboard, paper and sawdust, which are converted to pulp and placed in rectangular moulds to dry. So far they are meeting the needs of the World Food Programme (WFP) for fuel for some of the schools it assists.

Children at the Saint-Joseph School in Fleuriot, a poor neighbourhood to the north of Port-au-Prince, have lunch each day as part of the school meals programme provided by the United Nations agency in several parts of Haiti.

The school receives briquettes for cooking, as well as food for the meals. It also has a specially designed stove, donated by the WFP, which burns the ecological fuel.

“We’re working on a prototype of a similar stove so that we can enter the national market with our product. Without it, people will use the traditional fire pits they usually cook on with charcoal, and they won’t appreciate the benefits (of the briquettes), they’ll think they’re no good,” says Fanfan.

WFP sources tell IPS that Saint-Joseph is one of 29 schools that receive briquettes as well as food, in a programme that is still being developed with the view that it will be useful for agencies working on clean energy production.

During this school year, the WFP is serving 2,142 schools in seven of the country’s 10 provinces, reaching 685,000 schoolchildren. The WFP warned early this year that Haiti would face new food security challenges because of the effects of the drought, tropical storm Isaac and hurricane Sandy which affected it in 2012.

Environment Minister Jean François Thomas said in an earlier interview with IPS that, in conjunction with official reforestation plans, work is in progress to develop alternative energies that are less damaging to the environment and can alleviate the pressure on forest resources.

Haiti’s total demand for crude oil and petroleum derivatives is met by Petrocaribe, a project that benefits 17 Caribbean and Central American nations that receive oil from Venezuela on preferential payment terms.

But Haiti is also part of the Petrocaribe Energy Security Treaty signed in 2007, under which the parties committed themselves to developing projects to foment renewable energy.

Deforestation is a direct cause of soil erosion, which increases Haiti’s vulnerability to extreme weather events like hurricanes, droughts and floods, that may become more intense every year as a result of climate change.

Biofuels are tested aboard the USS Nimitz. Credit: US Navy

By Carey L. Biron
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 2013 (IPS)

New biofuel requirements proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are being met with concern by a spectrum of interest groups from environmentalists to the oil industry, with some warning that a gap between the proposal and existing law could force the government to draw on food-based alternative fuels.

The announcement, which opens a 45-day feedback period, sets standards under the country’s landmark Renewable Fuel Standard programme. That 2007 legislation established long-term goals for alternative fuel use – 36 billion gallons a year by 2022 – for which the EPA is mandated to set yearly requirements for the country’s petroleum importers and refiners.

The new requirement proposals offer standards for three types of alternative fuels: biomass-based diesel made from various vegetable or even animal oils (1.28 billion gallons); “advanced” biofuels for use, for instance, in planes or ships (2.75 billion gallons); and “cellulosic” biofuels made from non-food items such as inedible grasses (14 million gallons).

This last type is of particular importance, given that legislators in 2007 specifically aimed to preclude any competition between the productions of biomass for alternative fuels versus food. Yet while the proposals do incrementally increase the usage levels across this range of fuels by about 1.4 billion gallons more than were stipulated in 2012, the level for cellulosic fuel is far lower than the original legislation stipulates as a signpost for this year.

By 2013, the 2007 bill states, the U.S. was to be using a billion gallons of cellulosic biofuel. The EPA’s announcement of just 14 million gallons would thus leave a massive shortfall – and even this lower figure could be a stretch.

The problem is that U.S. production capability for cellulosic biofuel has yet to come anywhere near satisfying the legally required demand. Production capacity was particularly hampered by the timing of the 2007 bill, which came immediately before the massive economic contraction of 2008, during which investments for the 100-million-dollar refineries required for this type of operation dried up.

Although investments in cellulosic biofuel refining have now picked up, the market has yet to achieve commercial viability. Last week, a court voided previous EPA requirements for this type of biofuel (for 2010 and 2011) because the country had produced none of the product during those years, and just 21,000 gallons last year.

While the court says that the EPA’s requirements were baseless, agency officials say the proposed standards constitute a “reasonable representation of expected production” by a handful of start-up refineries. The group that brought the court case, the American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry lobby group, has responded scornfully.

“The court recognized the absurdity of fining companies for failing to use a nonexistent biofuel, but EPA wants to nearly double the mandate for the fuel in 2013,” Bob Greco, an API official, said in a statement. He also suggested that the agency “needs a serious reality check” and that “its renewable fuels program is unworkable and must be scrapped.”

Still, the EPA’s new moves have been strongly backed by the biofuels industry.

“The cellulosic biofuels industry is just breaking through at commercial scale,” Brooke Coleman, executive director of the Advanced Ethanol Council, a trade group, said in a statement, noting that the EPA had gotten the related standards “just right”. “The volume standards proposed … will continue to provide advanced biofuel investors and innovators with a predictable and durable path forward in that effort.”

986 million gallons needed

Currently, two cellulosic refineries are operating in the United States, with at least two more under construction. As such, even if the current forecasts were to be overly optimistic – and analysis by several advocates suggests that the EPA’s estimates may be conservative – the market for this type of biofuel looks set to achieve commercial viability in the next year or two.

Yet some are worried that the way in which the United States makes up the shortfall in its cellulosic biofuel stocks could still have significant impact. This gap is not only an issue with regard to the 14 million gallons that the EPA has now proposed, but more importantly the billion gallons required by the original 2007 legislation.

This means that at least 986 million gallons of alternative fuel will still need to be accounted for this year.

“Because these mandates are ‘nested’, that 986 million gallons would turn into a mandate for biodiesel, which in turn could come from sugarcane, vegetable oil, etc.,” Jeremy Martin, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Clean Vehicles Programme, told IPS.

“When you look at this year’s market, look at the availability of vegetable oil and sugarcane ethanol – those markets are tight, and so we don’t think it would be a good idea to expand those mandates faster.”

While Martin notes that he fully supports the broad aims of the EPA’s moves on alternative fuels, he says that just because cellulosic biofuel production is currently behind schedule “doesn’t mean we need to accelerate mandates that threaten our environment and our food supplies.”

Further, if the EPA decided to move in this direction, it might not be only the U.S. environment and food supplies that are threatened.

“The economists that model this type of thing initially thought that the remainder would be made up mostly through sugarcane, but now it looks like it might be diesel. Both of those, however, particularly the sugarcane ethanol, would almost certainly be imported,” Martin says.

“We’ve looked at the resources available for cellulosic fuel, and the United States has substantial resources. But that’s in contrast with biomass diesel and sugarcane, which are in short supply and in competition with food production.”

Further, one of the fastest-growing and cheapest sources of vegetable oil (for biomass diesel) is palm oil, the production of which in recent decades has been blamed for the clear-cutting and monoculturing of at least 15 million hectares worldwide, according to the United Nations in 2011.

While the EPA has made a preliminary ruling suggesting that palm oil may not environmentally friendly enough for use under the renewable fuels mandates, that ruling is not yet final.

“As you expand these standards, independent of whether you use soybeans, corn or other materials, at the end of day if there is an inadequate supply more will have to come from overseas,” Martin says. “And we think that palm oil will be the new supplier of vegetable oil into the world market.”

A joint project by the energy and agriculture authorities in Argentina is seeking to boost electricity generation from forestry waste and other rural products which have enormous potential, according to experts.

The Probiomasa programme, launched this year, is planning to increase energy supply from burning organic waste, from 3.5 percent of the current energy mix to 10 percent in 2015.

“The goal is to raise biomass participation in electricity generation by means of a platform for private projects in need of promotion,” said Miguel Almada, head of the agroenergy area of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.

“Many projects are already under way, or are negotiating tariffs,” he told IPS.

A worker unloads rice husk at a biomass power plant in Thailand. Credit: Nantiya Tangwisutijit/IPS

The idea is to save money that now goes to importing fossil fuels for thermal power stations, help improve living conditions in isolated rural areas, and reduce pollution.

When biomass is processed for energy it emits less global warming-causing greenhouse gases than fossil fuels. In addition, efficient use of biomass contributes to the conservation of soil and water.

Claudia Peirano of the Argentine Forestry Association told IPS that biomass is already a key element in this industry for producing energy, for its own use and for sale of surplus products.

For example, the timber company Alto Paraná and the pulp and paper company Papel Misionero, both located in the northeastern province of Misiones, have their own electricity generation plants based on sawdust from their forestry plantations, she said.

“The excess supplies the boilers of hotels (at the Iguazú Falls) for hot water and for heating swimming pools,” she said. It also contributes to the national electricity grid, she added.

Peirano said that wood chips could be used to make cellulose or paper, with a higher added value than biomass, but the investments required would be greater and would take longer to yield returns.

According to a study carried out with the support of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), Argentina has the potential to generate half the country’s total energy supply by burning biomass.

The assessment by the FAO and government and technical bodies in Argentina mapped the biomass resources in each province to determine the available potential.

The study’s methodology made it possible to identify, quantify and locate production and consumption of biomass throughout the country.

The study, “Análisis del Balance de Energía Derivada de Biomasa en Argentina” (Analysis of the Energy Derived from Biomass in Argentina) concludes that biomass production today is “significantly higher” than official estimates and that the country has “an enormous potential of available biomass” over and above what is already used.

The report’s authors indicate that biomass production could increase from the 7.9 million tonnes produced at present to 148 million tonnes. The province with the most resources is Misiones in the northeast, but they point out that there are others.

Based on different waste products, the northern provinces of Santiago del Estero, Tucumán, Salta, Chaco and Formosa would be good producers, as well as the central province of La Pampa, and Tierra del Fuego in the far south.

Unlike biofuels, which are manufactured from specific energy-rich crops, biomass is made out of organic waste from other activities.

The waste comes from the forestry industry, wine-making, rice mills, sugarcane plantations and sugar mills, yerba mate plantations, the cotton, oil, peanut and fruit industries, and others.

Despite its potential, the FAO considers that biomass has so far been the “Cinderella” of energy sources, without political visibility or recognition in development planning in many countries, including Argentina.

FAO, which published its study in 2009 at the request of the Argentine government as a step towards the official launch of the Probiomasa programme, says the use of biomass resources is not just an environmentally-friendly option.

As well as reducing the contribution to global warming, biomass energy promotes rural development, adds value to agricultural production, bolsters the growth of regional economies and creates quality jobs in the countryside.

In an interview with IPS, Jorge Hilbert, an engineer and the coordinator of the National Bioenergy Programme at the National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA), said the government wishes to advance in this kind of development through the Probiomasa programme.

“The FAO study (in which Hilbert collaborated) shows the productivity and quantity of waste generated by the agricultural and forestry industries at the national level, but now more precise work is being done for each province and the municipalities,” he said.

In any case, the expert said, potential is one thing and economic feasibility another. “The resource is available, but if the price paid for the energy is lower than what it costs to produce, it is not viable,” he said.

Tariffs are a key issue, as the other sources who spoke to IPS also pointed out. “If the prices aren’t right, there won’t be any business,” Hilbert said.

However, he was confident this debate would be settled now that the programme depends not only on the Agriculture Ministry but also on the Ministry of Federal Planning, which includes the area of energy and sets tariffs.