Search

There is overwhelming evidence of the harm caused by the European Union’s current bioenergy policy to people in developing countries, to the climate and to Europe’s own sustainable development. The policy is on a collision course with the Paris climate agreement and the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals., This briefing follows the trail of destruction left by the policy on three continents. It assesses the extraordinary lobbying ‘firepower’ and powerful network of influence at the disposal of the European biofuel industry and its allies, which is blocking reform. In the past year alone, actors in the biofuel value chain – from feedstock growers to biofuel producers – spent over €14m and hired nearly 400 lobbyists. Biofuel producers spend as much on EU influencing as the tobacco lobby. EU decision makers must free themselves from the stranglehold of powerful corporate groups – and choose genuinely sustainable and renewable energy to meet their 2030 climate and energy goals.

Free public services, such as health and education, are one of the strongest weapons in the fight against inequality. They benefit everyone in society, but the poorest most of all. They mitigate the impact of skewed income distribution, and redistribute revenue by putting ‘virtual income’ into the pockets of the poorest women and men., Across OECD countries public services already provide the poorest people with the equivalent of 76% of their post-tax income., Oxfam is calling on governments to urgently reform tax systems and increase public spending on free public services, such as health and education, to tackle inequality and prevent us being tipped irrevocably into a world that works for the few and not the many., Key recommendations: Prioritize increased public spending on and delivery of health and education services, to fight poverty and inequality at a national level. Prioritize policies and practices that increase financing for free public health and education. Finance health and education from general progressive taxation, rather than through private and optional insurance schemes, user fees and out-of-pocket payments. Refrain from implementing unproven and unworkable market reforms to public health and education systems, and expand public sector rather than private sector delivery of essential services.

EU biofuel mandates, a subsidy to big business that could cost every adult about €30 each year by 2020, deprive millions of people of food, land and water. Countries with poor protection of land rights are magnets for land deals—most of which are to grow crops that can be used for biofuels. If the land used to produce biofuels for the EU in 2008 had been used to produce wheat and maize instead, it could have fed 127 million people for the entire year. It is completely unacceptable that we are burning food in our petrol tanks while poor families go hungry. EU governments have it within their power to make a difference to the lives of millions of hungry people. It’s time to scrap EU biofuel mandates.

The new wave of land deals is not the new investment in agriculture that millions had been waiting for. The poorest people are being hardest hit as competition for land intensifies. Oxfam’s research has revealed that residents regularly lose out to local elites and domestic or foreign investors because they lack the power to claim their rights effectively and to defend and advance their interests. Companies and governments must take urgent steps to improve land rights outcomes for people living in poverty. Power relations between investors and local communities must also change if investment is to contribute to rather than undermine the food security and livelihoods of local communities.

The year 2008 is halfway to the deadline for reaching the Millennium Development Goals. Despite some progress, they will not be achieved if current trends continue. Aid promises are predicted to be missed by $30bn, at a potential cost of 5 million lives. Starting with the G8 meeting in Japan, rich countries must use a series of high-profile summits in 2008 to make sure the Goals are met, and to tackle both climate change and the current food crisis. Economic woes must not be used as excuses: rich countries' credibility is on the line.

Governments are legally bound to ensure the right to food for all. Nevertheless, today there are one billion hungry people in the world and millions more are food insecure. The 2009 World Summit on Food Security offers a unique opportunity to develop a system of global food security governance that bridges the divide between the conflicting visions and interests of global political, financial, and technical mechanisms. In particular, world leaders should ensure the active participation of governments and civil-society organisations representing the poorest and most vulnerable people. At the Summit, world leaders must stop acting in narrow national and corporate interests, and start acting in the interests of international food security, peace, and stability.

European austerity programmes have dismantled the mechanisms that reduce inequality and enable equitable growth. With inequality and poverty on the rise, Europe is facing a lost decade. An additional 15 to 25 million people across Europe could face the prospect of living in poverty by 2025 if austerity measures continue. Oxfam knows this because it has seen it before. The austerity programmes bear a striking resemblance to the ruinous structural adjustment policies imposed on Latin America, South-East Asia, and sub-Sahara Africa in the 1980s and 1990s. These policies were a failure: a medicine that sought to cure the disease by killing the patient. They cannot be allowed to happen again. In A Cautionary Tale: The true cost of austerity and inequality in Europe Oxfam calls on the governments of Europe to turn away from austerity measures and instead choose a path of inclusive growth that delivers better outcomes for people, communities, and the environment., Oxfam has also produced a series of country case studies on the damaging effects of austerity. These cover France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the UK, and are available to download below., "Oxfam's report, A Cautionary Tale: The true cost of austerity and inequality in Europe, makes an important contribution to assessing the high and long-lasting costs of these ill-conceived policies.", Professor Joseph Stiglitz