News & Media

Land used for European biofuels could feed 120 million people daily

March 9, 2023

CO₂ benefits of biofuels pale in significance to simply giving land back to nature, while using just 2.5% of the land for solar panels would produce the same amount of energy

Europe currently wastes land the size of Ireland on crops for biofuels which is an obstacle to tackling the climate crisis and food security, a new study shows. The study commissioned by Transport and Environment (T&E) shows that this land could be used to feed 120 million people or, if given back to nature, could absorb twice as much CO₂ as is supposedly saved by powering cars with biofuels. Using an area equivalent to just 2.5% of this land for solar panels would produce the same amount of energy.

Maik Marahrens, biofuels manager at T&E, said: “Biofuels are a failed experiment. To continue to burn food as fuel while the world is facing a growing global food crisis is borderline criminal. Countries like Germany and Belgium are discussing limiting food crop biofuels in response. The rest of Europe must follow suit.”

Julie Bos, EU climate justice policy advisor at Oxfam, said: “The EU’s biofuel policy is a catastrophe for hundreds of millions of people who are struggling to find their next meal. Not only does it surrender vast swathes of cropland to fuel cars, but it also pushes food prices even higher. European countries must once and for all stop burning food for fuel.”

According to the research, land cultivated to grow crops for biofuels could be used to provide the calorie needs of at least 120 million people [1]. It would be more than enough to cover the 50 million people that the UN says are “in emergency or worse levels of acute food insecurity.” With world fertiliser prices sky-high and the UN-brokered deal that allowed shipments of grain out of Ukraine in the balance, the organisations call on European governments to prioritise food over fuel.

This is made worse due to biofuels’ questionable climate benefits. Crop biofuels consumed in Europe require a total of 9.6 million hectares of land – an area larger than the island of Ireland (Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland) [2]. If this were returned to its natural state, it could absorb around 65 million tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere – nearly twice the officially reported net CO₂ savings from biofuels replacing fossil fuels.

Using the land for solar farms would also be far more efficient. You need 40 times more land to power a car using biofuels compared to an electric car powered by solar energy, the analysis shows. An area just 2.5% of the land currently dedicated to biofuels would be needed for solar to produce the same amount of energy, leaving the rest available for rewilding or growing food.

“Right now we surrender vast swathes of land for crops that we simply burn in our cars. It’s a scandalous waste. This land could feed millions of people or, if given back to nature, provide carbon sinks rich in biodiversity. Crop biofuels are probably the dumbest thing ever promoted in the name of the climate,” concludes Maik Marahrens.

The EU has set itself targets to halt and reverse the loss of biodiversity in its Nature Restoration Law. With biofuel feedstocks taking up a good chunk of Europe’s croplands, ending the use of land for biofuels could be an important step to achieving this goal.

Notes to editor

[1] If the land now fully dedicated to biofuels for consumption in Europe (5.3 Mha) would be used for growing wheat.

[2] This figure refers to the total area needed to grow the crops used for Europe’s biofuels consumption. A share of these crops is going into ‘co-products’, mainly animal feed. The following numbers given on food and carbon sequestration in this press release refer to the area allocated to biofuels, only (5.3Mha), excluding the area allocated to co-products (4.3Mha).

Cox’s Bazar camp fire: Oxfam responding with food and shelter

March 7, 2023

A fire that swept through Rohingya refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, on Sunday has left 12,000 people homeless and in urgent need of shelter, water, sanitation, and medical services. Oxfam is mounting a response to provide immediate food and shelter to impacted people.

“In a matter of hours, thousands of bamboo and tarpaulin shelters were destroyed along with few primary health centres, local schools, and community spaces. Thousands of families were forced to spend the night under the open sky, many without any food or water,” said Ashish Damle, Oxfam Country Director in Bangladesh.

The fire started on Sunday afternoon around 2:45 pm local time (9:45 PM NZST) in camp 11 and quickly spread to adjacent camps. While no casualties were reported, the full extent of the damage is being assessed.

“This is the second major fire that hit Rohingya camps since 2021. It took years of relief efforts to bring a semblance of normalcy to the lives of people after the first fire. To the Rohingya refugees this is a déjà vu of loss and suffering,” added Damle.

Oxfam team is working closely with partners on the ground, assessing people’s needs; and preparing to provide most affected people with immediate food, shelter, water, and sanitation.

Oxfam International is collaborating with community leaders, local authorities, and other partners on the ground to conduct long-term needs assessments for those affected.

Türkiye aid dwindling in spite of dire conditions

March 6, 2023

One month on from the earthquakes that struck Türkiye killing over 45,000 people and destroying hundreds of thousands of buildings and major infrastructure, aid and donations for survivors has sharply declined in spite of continuing urgent needs.

Hundreds of thousands of families are residing in informal settlements to stay close to homes that have been destroyed, where there is little to no access to water and basic sanitation, shelter, and food. Women and children are affected disproportionately, with many fearing for their safety. Oxfam spoke with one woman who delivered a baby in a tent and had not received any medical support 10 days after giving birth.

In an area with a population of 15.2 million, almost 2 million people have evacuated from earthquake affected areas with government support or through their own means, straining the local economy and available safe housing across the country. Those who remain have no recourse but to stay outside, fearing returning indoors due to continuing aftershocks that continue to damage homes and infrastructure. The areas affected by the earthquakes in Türkiye include a large Syrian refugee population, who have already endured displacement.

Oxfam in Türkiye is coordinating with a network of grassroots women’s organisations and cooperatives, volunteers, civil society actors, and public authorities to rapidly provide food, clean water, showers, hygiene products, and blankets, and to facilitate setting up shelters. With Oxfam, women’s cooperatives are operating community kitchens and providing food to people everyday. Oxfam is also initiating the repair of water reservoirs to ensure access to clean water and setting up of toilets and showers.

In the coming months, Oxfam intends to support 1.4 million people living in the areas most affected by the earthquake by providing access to food, restoring water systems, and supporting people’s livelihoods through training and financial support.

Over 20 million more people hungry in Africa’s “year of nutrition”

February 23, 2023

Despite promises, nearly three-quarters of African governments reduced their agricultural budgets while paying almost double that on arms.

In the 12 months that African leaders vowed to improve food security in the continent, over 20 million more people have been pushed into severe hunger – equivalent to the entire population of Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe combined.

Today a fifth of the African population of 278 million is undernourished, and 55 million of its children under the age of five are stunted due to severe malnutrition.

“The hunger African people are facing today is a direct result of inadequate political choices. In a year marred with global inflation and climate disasters, African leaders should have stepped up to their responsibility”, said Fati N’Zi-Hassane, Oxfam in Africa Director.

Chronic underinvestment in agriculture is a key cause of the widespread hunger experienced in 2022. The majority of African governments (48 out of 54) reportedly spend an average of 3.8 percent of their budgets on agriculture -some spending as little as one percent. Nearly three quarters of these governments have reduced their share of budget spent on agricultural since 2019, failing to honour their Malabo commitments to invest at least 10% of their budget on agriculture.

In contrast, African governments spent nearly double that budget (6.4%) on arms last year. Ongoing conflict, especially in Sahel and Central Africa, has continued to destroy farmland, displace people and fuel hunger.

With no major government support to farmers or adequate climate adaptation, production of staple food like cereals dropped last year, despite the continent possessing nearly a quarter of the world’s agricultural land. Worsening climate-fuelled droughts and floods, and a global rise in fuel and fertilizers prices, made food unobtainable for millions of people. In 2022 alone, food inflation rose by double digits in all but ten African countries.

“During the rainy season, we did not have money to pay for fertilizers. On top of that, our donkey died, so I had to cultivate our field with a daba [a simple ploughing tool]. The attic is empty,” says Sidbou, a female farmer in Burkina Faso.

As the 36^th AU Summit – which focuses on intra-continental free trade this year– begins today, millions of smallholder farmers, who are vital food producers in the continent, cannot reach markets in neighbouring countries due to poor infrastructure and high intra-African tariffs. Many African nations find it cheaper to import food from outside the continent than from their next-door neighbour.

“As Africa’s Heads of State meet today at this year’s Summit, let this not be another year of broken promises. We urge them to honour commitments they collectively made almost 10 years ago by investing in agriculture and supporting smallholder farmers,” said N’Zi-Hassane.

“African leaders must also take serious steps to free up intra-continental trade to help local farmers. They must equally ramp up programmes to help people rebuild their lives and cope with recurrent climatic shocks,” added N’Zi-Hassane.

Notes to the Editors

As of August 2022 (the last available figure), there were 139.95 million people in 35 African countries living in Crisis or worse (IPC 3 or higher) acute food insecurity. That is an increase of 17% (20.26 million people) over the same number a year earlier (119.69 million people). While, this increase can be attributed to both a worsening acute food insecurity situation and an expansion in the population analyzed between 2021 and 2022, even when considering the share of the analyzed population in IPC3+ equivalent, the proportion of the population in these phases has increased in 2022 compared to 2021. Source: Global Report on Food Crises Mid-Year Update 2022 . For more details on the IPC classification please see IPC Technical Manual Version 3.1
The population of Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe combined is approximately 21.3 million according to WorldoMeter in February 2023.
Malnutrition figures from the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2022
The average spending on military as share of total budget is 6.43% (2021) as reported at Stockholm International Peace Research Institute , while the average spending in agriculture (2021) was 3.8% as reported on GovernmentSpendingWatch
South Sudan spends less than 1% of its budget on Agriculture. Calculations of all agricultural spending in Africa is based on data from the government spending watch. , national budgets and FAO.
According to the CAADP report: and the FAO Crop Prospects report, Africa’s cereal production in 2022 was 207.4 million tons, a decline of 3.4 million tons from the average of the previous five years.
COVID-19 in addition to climate change resulted in decrease of access to input, food production, food transportation and distribution and processing. In 2014 African leaders signed the Malabo Declaration, which stipulated that African governments must spend at least 10% of their budget on Agriculture and supporting farmers.
In 2022, food inflation rose by double digits in all Africa countries except ten. Source:Trading economics.

Dismal conditions in shelters as hundreds of thousands of people in Syria and Türkiye lack water and basic sanitation

February 20, 2023

Hundreds of thousands of people, among those who lost their homes in the massive earthquakes that hit Türkiye and Syria ten days ago, are now crammed into temporary shelters with insufficient clean water or toilets.

In some shelters in Aleppo, Syria, as many as 150 people are having to share a single toilet. Women and children are disproportionally affected. One woman told Oxfam she had to hold herself for 24 hours sometimes, so she doesn’t have to use the only available toilet. “There is no privacy or dignity.”

Moutaz Adham, Country Director of Oxfam in Syria, said: “Cholera cases, which were already on the rise even before the earthquake, could surge given the scarcity of proper sanitation facilities in overcrowded mosques and temporary camps. It is vital that we stop people dying from preventable disease.”

In Türkiye, only a small part of the government’s planned shelter containers has been installed so far, leaving hundreds of thousands of families in small temporary shelters, some with hardly any water taps or toilets.

Oxfam KEDV in Türkiye is working through a network of women’s organisations and cooperatives, volunteers, and public authorities to facilitate the setting up of shelters and tents, and to distribute food, clean water, showers, toilets, hygiene products, and blankets.

Oxfam KEDV’s partners are also providing survivors with information on where to get support and creating safe spaces for women and children.

Syrian refugees in the affected areas in Türkiye have already endured years of multiple displacements. “We don’t think about the future… we are only surviving”, Aziza Ahmet, a Syrian refugee single mother of three, told Oxfam.

In Türkiye, Oxfam’s operation with its partner network aims to reach 1.4m people in the most affected areas, including by restoring water and sanitation systems, ensuring access to food, and supporting people to rebuild their businesses by providing training, mentoring and financial support.

In Syria, Oxfam is currently providing water and hygiene kits in Aleppo with the aim to reach over 26,000 people. The team has begun fixing water taps and toilets for over 1000 families, and support safety checks to 220 buildings.

“We are running against the clock to help. The scale of need is massive. Oxfam is planning to scale up of our operations to reach 300,000 of the most affected people with lifesaving food, clean water, sanitation, and cash,” said Adham.

EARTHQUAKE: Oxfam and partners aim to reach nearly 2 million affected people in Turkiye and Syria

February 14, 2023

Oxfam, together with our partners in Turkiye (Turkey) and Syria, is working to reach nearly 2 million people – 10 percent of the population affected by the quake – with aid and support so that they can rebuild their lives.

Meryem Aslan, Oxfam Spokeswoman in Turkiye said: “People are living in cars, mosques, in tents or huddling around fires in freezing conditions. Emergency shelters are overwhelmed and over-crowded. Many people do not want to stay in the area with hundreds of thousands having been evacuated out of the region.”

In Turkiye, Oxfam KEDV is working closely with dozens of grassroot women-led organisations and cooperatives to reach up to 1.5 million people over the first three years. Our teams have already provided food, shelter, blankets and psychological support to some of most affected areas including Gaziantep, Hatay and Mardin.

“Our teams are experienced, having responded to the 1999 earthquake, but we are facing new hurdles getting aid to those who need it. We are dealing with destroyed roads, nearly 300 aftershocks and an unprecedented scale of devastation. The sheer number of fatalities is heart-breaking. Topping the list of items needed are body bags to bury the dead. In some areas, communication is also limited which is hampering aid distribution,” added Aslan.

The earthquake has impacted over 13 million people in Turkiye – one in every six people. Over 12,000 buildings have been destroyed and many more are threatening to crumble.

Ali, a father of four from Gaziantep, told us, “We were shaking and we were so scared. I thought this was my last day. When I looked at the walls, I felt like they were moving towards me.”

He added, “It was such a bitter day. I hope we never experience this ever again.”

In Hatay, a city affected by the earthquake, only three hospitals remain standing. It is imagined that the earthquake response will take a year in Turkiye, but the after-effects will be felt for many more years to come.

In Syria, the earthquake has caused over 3500 deaths and many more injured.

Abdelkader Dabbagh, Aleppo Area Manager for Oxfam in Syria said: “The earthquake has shattered an already conflict-torn country. People do not have a roof over their heads and are stuck in freezing temperatures with no idea where they could get their next meal. Our team is working with other humanitarian organisations to get clean drinking water and hygiene packs to survivors.”

We already started providing safe drinking water to people in Aleppo. We have also supported safety checks to 220 buildings and begun fixing water taps and toilets for over 1000 of the most impacted people. Over the next six months, Oxfam aims to reach more than 300,000 survivors.

Moutaz Adham, Oxfam in Syria Country Director, said: “This is nothing new for Syrians who have lived and are still living the horrors of over twelve years of conflict. To make matters worse, we are still facing an uphill battle due to years of chronic underfunding, skyrocketing inflation, and scarce supplies of fuel.”

Oxfam calls on the international community to meet the urgent needs of those affected by the earthquake in Turkiye and Syria, and to facilitate aid delivery to both countries along with a longer-term plan to support the survivors in the recovery efforts.

Notes

Oxfam KEDV was founded in 1986 and became an Oxfam affiliate in 2019. Previous to the earthquake, Oxfam KEDV was working with 78 grassroot women organisations and cooperatives in the affected areas and 600 throughout Turkey. We will work with these partners in our humanitarian response to the earthquake.

Oxfam KEDV is also a member to the National Disaster Response Platform, a network formed in 2020 representing 27 national civil CSOs, which coordinates disaster and emergency responses in Turkiye. All NGOs registered with this platform must register with the Acik Acik Association which is responsible for ensuring the transparency and accountability of NGOS.

In Syria, Oxfam has been on the scene since 2013. We get clean water to people affected by the conflict. We distributed cash and food. We also work with people to rebuild their lives including supporting farmers to start farming again through trainings and distribution of seeds and animal fodder as well as repairing irrigation systems.

Data on the death toll in Syria was sourced from AFP via the BBC.