Campaigners criticise biofuel rules

Oxfam said the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO). which requires 2.5% of all petrol and diesel sold at UK forecourts to come from renewable biofuels, was contributing to human rights abuses and rising food prices.

The aid agency said the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues had estimated some 60 million indigenous people faced clearance from their land to make way for biofuel plantations such as palm oil.

Oxfam said it was investigating reports of human rights abuses and land-grabbing in Asia, Africa and South America, and was concerned higher food prices could lead to greater hunger among the world's poor.

Ahead of the obligation's introduction, Oxfam said British drivers were being forced into supporting the unsustainable policy, which environmentalists say is also contributing to deforestation and exacerbating climate change.

But the Government has insisted the gradual introduction of biofuels will cut millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide.

Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly recently announced a review focusing on the "indirect" consequences of biofuel production such as changing the use of land from food to energy crops.

Oxfam policy adviser Robert Bailey said pushing ahead with the RTFO before the evidence of the impact of biofuels was in was like "treating a patient with an untested medicine that could make them even more unwell".

"People in poor countries are being driven off their land to make way for new plantations," he said. "They are working in punishing conditions for pittance. The price of food is spiralling rapidly out of their reach and rainforests are being destroyed."

Oxfam wants the Government to call a halt to the RTFO until a thorough, independent, investigation has been undertaken and compulsory sustainability standards are in place.