Fair Fuels? Agrofuels in Latin America between Crisis Regulation, Socio-ecological Inequalities and Energy Transition

Over the last decade agrofuels have experienced a boom in Latin America in multiple ways: with regard to number of producing countries, output of produced feedstock convertible into fuel, trade volume, as well as concerning the area used for monoculture cultivation of "agrofuels" crops, e.g. sugarcane, oil palm and soy. While at first glance this boom seems to be a win-win situation with positive social, economic and ecological effects, a more nuanced analysis reveals diverse negative impacts, amongst them the (re-) production of socio-ecological inequalities.

In their lecture, Maria Backhouse (Freie Universität Berlin) and Dr. Kristina Dietz (desiguALdades.net) present main outcomes of their BMBF-funded research project focusing on developments in Brazil and Colombia as well as on transnational interdependencies.