The rapidly growing global bioenergy industry escaped unscathed from a UN food summit today, the UN envoy on the right to food said.
The conversion of foodstuffs like maize, sugar, soy and palm oil into biofuel was one of the most controversial issues at the June 3rd-5th summit, pitting biofuel giants, the United States and Brazil, against countries who fear its harmful effects.
Under pressure from Washington, a draft summit declaration avoided negative language on biofuels, instead saying they present "challenges and opportunities" and calling for an "international dialogue" on the issue.
Olivier De Schutter, an independent UN expert on the right to food, said countries opposed to biofuels had given in, rather than hold out against the pro-biofuel countries and risk sinking the broad declaration vowing to fight hunger.
"The final declaration says only one thing: we need to have a continued international dialogue on this issue," De Schutter told Reuters on the sidelines of the Rome summit.
"That's important in one way. It shows that agrofuels are now becoming part of the international agenda and that states may not act unilaterally in this domain," he said.
The draft declaration was still being negotiated on Thursday evening, but there was no disagreement on the biofuel reference.
US Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, who has defended a policy that will see about a quarter of US maize turned into ethanol production by 2022, said the summit declaration's neutral language was acceptable to the United States.