Sir Bob Geldof , Businessman and Anti-poverty campaigner was one of the keynotes during the opening session of the World Biofuels Market yesterday. He stated: “It may seem counter-intuitive, but now as we live through a grave economic crisis is the moment to address this [poverty]. Without including the 3 billion people who are living on less than 2 US dollars per day in the new global financial architecture we will continue to have an asymmetric system with inbuilt instability.” He is convinced that investments in biofuels can foster Africa’s development, because they will substitute import, they will bring more money to the economies, they will create jobs and build infrastructure needed. They will also have a positive influence on educational and health.

Even if we do not agree with Sir Geldof entirely, we have to admit that small‐scale biofuel projects can create opportunities for farmers by giving them an access to cheap electricity that they would never have been able to access before and large‐scale projects offer opportunities to export value‐added products that add to a country’s foreign exchange earnings. What is more “thanks to abundant, fertile land combined with a climate conducive to ‘good biofuels’ like sugarcane, sweet sorghum and jatropha, many parts of Africa have the opportunity to develop sustainable biofuels for their own use and for the world market. It took Brazil 30 years to become the biofuel powerhouse it is today. With proper investment, and attention paid to sustainable policies, Africa can learn from Brazil and match it in 15 years,” says Meghan Sapp, Secretary General for PANGEA, Partners for Euro‐African Green Energy.

On the other hand, Oxfam – an international NGO, working to fight poverty and injustice - claims that increased food prices related to biofuel production will drag 30 million people into poverty. Therefore, without deep research and reliable statistics – taking into account not only food prices, but also biofuels’ economy stimulation - it will be impossible to estimate how the “good” and “bad” biofuels influence the poorest peoples’ lives, but we cannot ignore the fact that there are numerous benefits of investing in biofuels. First of all they are part of the solution for global warming. Secondly, they can be a part of stimulus plan for global economy. And last, but not least, increasing body of research points to the fact that biofuels will have a considerable role to play in the development of Least Developed Countries.