Biofuel boost

permafrost). Of the remainder, the vast majority is groundwater, so that just 0.4 per cent of the world's total freshwater is available at the surface as lakes, soil moisture, air humidity, marshes, wetlands, rivers and biomass. And water is proving an increasingly critical component in agricultural activities. Earlier this month, the Chinese government declared an emergency for the first time over failing winter wheat crops covering millions of hectares in northern China, which is suffering the worst drought in more than half a century. Irrigation was only possible for a tiny fraction of the crop. Today, the links between the world's food and energy economies are stronger than ever and the more recent development of biofuels adds another degree of complexity to an already confusing web. And bilateral deals to share land between developing and developed countries adds to the complexity. For example, Madagascar is reported to have leased half of its arable land to a South Korean company for 99 years with no compensation other than jobs created on the farms. The report cites the creation of the International Energy Agency after the first oil shock in 1973. Its job was to coordinate collective action in future oil crises, above all through an emergency response system. The report argues that there is a need for an equivalent body to deal with international food issues and help avoid the situation that emerged last summer. The report also highlights the importance of individual consumers' decisions in developed countries. People there need to recognise the huge impact that their lifestyles have on the rest of the world, especially in the context of global food markets. In addition to the growing use of biofuels, Western diets — full of meat and dairy products — are massively inefficient in terms of water, energy and grain use, and produce more carbon dioxide too. " They do need to realise the global impact of what is on their plates and in their car engines, " the report says. " Fundamental questions of fairness are at stake: Gandhi's observation that there is enough for everyone's need, but not everyone's greed, is becoming truer all the time. " Britain is now following the lead of other countries such as Germany in seeking to exploit the realisation that second-generation biofuels are likely to be the only contenders in densely populated countries with little agricultural land to spare for fuel …