Climate change could exacerbate rich-poor issues

Biofuels are the main reason why rich and poor countries are making strange bedfellows.

A tequila shortage is perhaps one of the least-expected results of planting lucrative, “climate-friendly” biofuels — as Mexican farmers set ablaze their fields of cactus-like agave to make way for corn, a feedstock for ethanol. Biofuels are also blamed for raising food prices and destroying forests.

The result of misguided climate policies could be to undermine public support for action and discourage businesses from buying in.

“Definitely there’ll be tradeoffs between climate change and the local environment, and with energy security,” said Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA), which advises rich countries.

“We are not in the luxury of being able to choose from hundreds of energy types.”

Urgency has been spurred by a series of U.N. climate reports this year confirming threats like desertification, droughts and rising seas and calling for action now to cut the long-term cost.

But evidence is emerging of the repercussions. British charity Christian Aid says Colombian rebel groups are forcing poor people off their land to grow lucrative palm oil for biodiesel, likening it to diamonds financing African wars.

Oops. As if Indonesia’s deforestation for palm oil weren’t bad enough.