Brazil’s President Lula da Silva said: “I am offended when fingers which are dirty from oil and coal are pointed at clean biofuel.” The man is right. And many German critics of bioenergy are wrong.

The campaign against bioenergy which has been running for months, is directed not only at local farmers but also at Brazil as the world’s leader of bioethanol. In the largest country of Southamerica every second car is powered by clean, climate-neutral biofuel - a benefit for the environment.

For years, the campaign against bioenergy has been orchestrated by the old oil industry and many environmental associations and church relief organisations have been taken in by it. According to a study by “Union of Concerned Scientists” Exxon Mobil for example, has donated more than 16 million US-Dollars to 43 “climate sceptical organisations” between 1998 and 2005. The British Royal Society criticises that in 2005 …