Press Release

 Renewables not an issue for OPEC Member Countries

    But caution required over biofuels says Al-Herbish

02/2008 February 19, 2008 Vienna, Austria
Press inquiries:

OPEC Member Countries are not against the development of renewable energy sources, according to Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, Director-General of the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID). Caution should be exercised, however, with regard to the mass production of biofuels because of the likely impact on food security in low-income countries, he warned.

Mr. Al-Herbish was speaking at a Roundtable [which he chaired] on the “Rising prices of food and agriculture commodities: an opportunity for smallholder farmers?” during the 31st Governing Council of IFAD, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, in Rome last week.

The Director-General acknowledged that renewables, such as wind and solar energy, geothermics and biomass, all had a role to play in the energy mix, but only as sustainable, local solutions. The mass development of biofuels, he said, involved turning over giant swathes of arable land from food to energy production. While such an experience had proved successful in Brazil with the production of Ethanol from rain-fed sugar cane, it was not one that could necessarily be replicated in a continent like Africa, where irrigated agriculture is the norm and where the production of biofuels would be at the expense of an even scarcer commodity: food.

Mr. Al-Herbish went on to disclose that OFID was monitoring the biofuels situation closely. In light of its mandate to alleviate poverty, the institution was taking a special interest in exploring ways to reconcile the food and energy needs of the poor.

IFAD is the specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to eradicating rural poverty in developing countries, and is a key partner of OFID. Globally, the two institutions have financed some 67 development projects together.