Osnabruck. "Biofuels are the major assault on biodiversity" – that is what Professor Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Dean of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California as also former President of the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, emphasized on the occasion of the experts forum "Energy, Resources, Peace" at the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) in Osnabruck today. In his lecture about the challenges for a global peace policy he alerted particularly to the dangers emanating from the booming biofuels. The diversity of species was enormously threatened through the huge monocultures of the biofuel plants. The cultivation of energy crops was not in accordance with the terms of climate protection. Rather, it led to an ecological crisis.

 

Only cellulosic ethanol from plant waste material contributed to climate protection- but was still in development

According to von Weizsäcker the agricultural lobby, which only hoped to become immensely wealthy, was responsible for the recent trend of cultivating ethanol yielding plants like maize and sugar cane. Furthermore they wanted to be independent from the “people sitting on the fossil oil”. “Only when we are able to produce cellulosic ethanol, there is a chance to contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions”, said von Weizsäcker. Cellulosic ethanol, produced from fermentation of waste material, is still in development.

Merkel’s suggestion of per head emission limits was “fair and enhencing the peace progress”

To prohibit climate heating the concentration of carbon dioxide had to be stabilised and its emission had to be halved. “Instead we are anticipating a duplication of emissions on earth”, stated von Weizsäcker. It was important to even include developing countries. The suggestion of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel was a powerful approach. During her visit in Japan she had suggested to strive for worldwide coherent upper limits for greenhouse gases per capita. From the point of emissions per head, emerging countries range much better than the industrial countries. Angela Merkels suggestion was “fair” and able to “enhance the peace progress", appraised von Weizsäcker and figured out what this would mean for the industrial countries: "We had to cut our present-day emissions at least by 80 percent"!

 

Merkel’s suggestion of per head emission limits was “fair and enhencing the peace progress”

Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker assessed the energy efficiency as most fashionable solution serving climate protection. Economists always would speak about the productivity of labour and capital – and nothing was heard about productivity of resources. However, it had to be increased tenfold until 2050 - like the labour productivity was multiplied by factor 20 through the industrialization. In order to reach this goal, a continuous raise for energy prices was necessary. "We waste energy, because it costs nothing"! Same had happened also with the wages, that had risen continually parallel to the productivity.

 

Good international cooperation of scientists necessary

Since the world showed such unequal distribution of land, resources, property and population density, von Weizsäcker demanded an enforced international cooperation among experts from politics, geology, energy and peace work.