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Brown raises concerns about biofuels

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown raised fresh concerns about the impact of biofuels on Wednesday, as he put rising food prices on the world agenda by writing to fellow G8 leaders to prepare an international package on food scarcity.

Brown wants the issue to be on the agenda of the G8 summit in Japan in July and said he had concerns about the way the rush towards environmentally questionable biofuels might displace much-needed food production.

He is also likely to discuss the issue with US leaders when he visits Washington and New York next week. He wants the IMF and World Bank to engage the issue this year.

The US has taken a more enthusiastic approach to biofuels as a way of tackling climate change.

In a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda setting out a plan to address the food crisis, Brown wrote: “There is a growing consensus that we need urgently to examine the impact on food prices of different kinds and production methods of biofuels, and ensure that their use is responsible and sustainable.”

Britain is introducing subsidies for biofuels, but acknowledged the concerns of environmentalists when the UK transport secretary, Ruth Kelly, commissioned a review into their impact in February.

At the EU level, Brown has opposed an increase in biofuel targets, expressing his concern at their impact on deforestation, precious habitats and food security.

The letter from Brown follows a warning on Tuesday by the UN’s top humanitarian official, John Holmes, that food prices could spark worldwide unrest and threaten political stability.

Brown’s concern in part stems from advice given by his chief scientific adviser, John Beddington, that the effects of the food crisis would bite more quickly than climate change. Food prices have risen 57 percent in a year, the UN food and agriculture organization said. The price of rice has doubled, prompting countries to slow exports. Price rises have been attributed to the speed of growth in countries such as China.

A World Bank report yesterday said that biofuel consumption had helped push global food prices up 83 percent in the past three years and would drive inflation and strain developing economies into the next decade.

“Rising food prices threaten to roll back progress we have made in recent years on development. For the first time in decades, the number of people facing hunger is growing,” Brown said in his letter.

He called for a redoubling of “our efforts for a WTO trade deal that provides greater poor country access to developed country markets.”

“Market incentives” would eventually close the gap between the world’s grain supply and demand, he wrote.

Proposing “social safety nets for the poorest,” Brown said: “We may need to increase ... the scale of our support for humanitarian program.”
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