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Brazil's leader calls on Africa to embrace biofuels production
Ouagadougou (AFP) Oct 15, 2007 Brazil's President Luiz Ignacio Lula Da Silva called Monday on Africa to join a biofuels "revolution" to democratize access to energy across the continent. "Brazil invites Burkina Faso and all of Africa to join the biofuels revolution. With biofuels we can democratize access to energy in Africa," Lula said. The Brazilian leader spoke at an international colloquium on democracy and development during the first day of an Africa tour that also takes him to Congo, South Africa and Angola. "We need to add a new source of energy capable of responding to Africa's economic and social needs," said Lula, whose country has become the world's leading ethanol producer. With ethanol and other biofuels, Lula said, "we can fight the impact of climate change that affects poor countries the most." While several African countries, including South Africa, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo, have launched biofuel projects in recent years, the industry remains relatively rare on Africa. UN agriculture experts and others have also voiced concern that cultivating biofuel crops may cause a steep hike in prices for basic foods in the coming years, since farmers may switch from cultivating vital food crops to biofuel ones. Lula arrived Monday to meet with President Blaise Compaore and attend festivities marking his 20th anniversary in as Burkina Faso's leader. Compaore seized power in a bloody coup in October 1987 that killed his predecessor and former comrade in arms Thomas Sankara. The Burkinabe leader has brought democracy to the deeply poor landlocked nation, but Compaore's regime for many years paid no respect to Captain Sankara, an idealistic Marxist whose murder deeply fractured the West African country. The Brazilian president flies Tuesday to Brazzaville for a brief stay in Congo. Wednesday he is due in South Africa for the second summit of the India-Brasil-South Africa group of nations, set up to promote South-South cooperation as well as ties between their own countries. He wraps up his African tour Thursday in Angola. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Powering The World in the 21st Century at Energy-Daily.com
China's economic growth exacting too high a toll: Hu
Beijing (AFP) Oct 15, 2007President Hu Jintao said Monday that China's blistering economic growth was taking too high a toll on the nation's environment and society, and promised steps to limit the impacts. |
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