Let green energy rescue Doha negotiations, says Ted Turner
September 26, 2006
By From AFP
Geneva - US media mogul and billionaire philanthropist Ted Turner urged negotiators yesterday to use green energy as a means to revive the stalled World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks on a deal to reform global commerce.
In a speech he delivered to a WTO symposium, Turner said that the WTO's 149 member states should take up his idea for relaunching the so-called Doha round of negotiations: boost production of biofuels, a renewable source of energy that can be made from agricultural produce, including grain or crop waste.
Turner, the founder of Cable News Network, was speaking in his capacity as head of the UN Foundation, which he created in 1998 with a $1 billion (R7.7 billion) donation to support global causes.
The Doha round of negotiations was suspended in July amid a bitter rift between the EU and the US regarding farm subsidies and tariffs, as well as disputes between wealthy and developing nations over market concessions, particularly in agricultural trade.
"If we give up on Doha, we're giving up on fighting poverty," Turner said.
"The Doha round is stalled because rich countries and poor countries are split on the question of agriculture subsidies. If agriculture were always going to be the same, then the question of subsidies would be a problem without a solution. But agriculture is changing."
Turner noted that, whereas farmers had in the past always grown crops for food and fibre, they could now cultivate crops for fuel as well.
"The global demand for biofuels is huge and rising. That's why I'm confident that in the near future, farmers' incomes will be assured, not by subsidies and tariffs, but by market forces," he continued.
"And that's why it makes so little sense to throw away the Doha round over agricultural subsidies and tariffs. We should not give up a great future to cling to the past."
The Doha round of talks was launched in the Qatari capital in 2001 and were supposed to deliver a global agreement by 2004 on reducing barriers to agricultural and industrial trade, with the aim of boosting development in poor nations.
However, the negotiations dragged on without success until July's meltdown, and there has so far been little indication of when they could start again.
Turner said that the use of biofuels would not only help to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but also made economic sense because developing countries were struggling to cope with high oil prices.
"By investing in biofuels, developing countries can produce their own domestic transportation fuels, cut their energy costs, improve public health, create new jobs in the rural economy, and ultimately, build export markets," the philanthropist said.
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