David Fig

Recent content by David Fig

The Politics of Agrofuels and Mega-land and Water deals (29 Jun 2011)

The Procana Bioethanol project in Mozambique is a clear example of how agrofuel investments contribute rather than mitigate climate change, and are often accompanied by dispossession and impoverishment caused by landgrabbing.

Agricultural Innovation: Sustaining what agriculture? For what European bio-economy? (23 Feb 2011)

The Europe 2020 strategy's promotion of resource-efficient technologies and market incentives as the solution for sustainable agriculture is contradicted by experience where techno-fixes and market pressures have increased overall demand on resources.

Assumptions in the European Union biofuels policy: frictions with experiences in Germany, Brazil and Mozambique (27 Jul 2010)

EU biofuels policy is based on the assumption that it will lead to greenhouse gas savings, energy security and rural development, however in-depth research in Germany, Brazil and Mozambique reveals fundamental contradictions between EU policy assumptions and practices in the real world.

Agrofuel Crops (6 Apr 2010)

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in developing agrofuels on a large scale as an alternative to fossil fuel. EU biofuels policy, in particular, assumes that the environmental impacts associated with agrofuels production will be largely beneficial. This study questions such optimistic assumptions.

Ten key questions on climate change (18 Mar 2010)

Climate change is a political and scientific conundrum. From the denialism of the George Bush era to the neo-liberal imperatives of carbon trading, the subject is confusing, and an activist agenda is sometimes a navigational minefield.

Darkness and light – the electricity crisis in South Africa (25 Jun 2008)

At a time of serious energy mismanagement, and with the Cabinet approving a nuclear policy without any independent evaluation of the state company Eskom’s proposals, South Africans need to question the orthodoxy that only coal and uranium can deliver the requisite power needs of the country.

Paper presented at the Basker Vashee Memorial Lecture, de balie, Amsterdam, 24 June 2008

I met Basker Vashee when I worked with TNI in the 1970s, and it is a great privilege to be honouring his memory here tonight.