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Who Will Control the Green Economy? ETC Group, 2011

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Who Will Control the Green Economy? ETC Group, 2011 !"#$%&''$(#)*+#'$*",$ -+,,)$.(#)#/01 23$4#5,+)/,)*3$6+,67+,$*#$37)(*&#)$7$-+,,) .(#)#/0 7*$8&#9:;<$.=>$-+#?6$6+#5&@,3$ 7)$?6@7*,$#)$(#+6#+7*,$6#%,+$7)@$ %7+)3$*"7*$*",$A?,3*$*#$(#)*+#'$B&#/733$ %&''$6,+6,*?7*,$*",$-+,,@ .(#)#/0C %%%C,*(4+#?6C#+4 “We are told by men of science that all the venture of mariners on the sea, all that counter-marching tribes and races that confounds old history with its dust and rumour, sprang from nothing more abstruse than the laws of supply and demand, and a certain natural instinct for cheap rations. To any one thinking deeply, this will seem a dull and pitiful explanation.” —Robert Louis Stevenson, Will o’ the Mill, 1901 “As long as the maximization of profit remains the cornerstone of acquisitive society and capitalist economy, corporations will retain their interest in scarcity as a creator of economic value.” —German-born economist, Erich W. Zimmermann, in World resources and industries: a functional appraisal of the availability of agricultural and industrial materials, 1933 2(D)#%',@4,/,)*3 All original artwork, including the cover illustration, “BioMassters: The Board Game,” and report design by Shtig. ETC Group gratefully acknowledges the financial support of SwedBio (Sweden), HKH Foundation (USA), CS Fund “Trickle Down” by Adam Zyglis used with permission. (USA), Christensen Fund (USA), Heinrich Böll Who Will Control the Green Economy? is ETC Group Foundation (Germany), the Lillian Goldman Charitable Communiqué no. 107. Trust (USA), Oxfam Novib (Netherlands) and the Norwegian Forum for Environment and Development. November 2011 ETC Group is solely responsible for the views expressed in All ETC Group publications are available free of charge this document. from www.etcgroup.org. !"#$%&''$(#)*+#'$*",$!"##$ %&'$'()* !"#$%&''$(#)*+#'$*",$ -+,,)$.(#)#/01 23$4#5,+)/,)*3$6+,67+,$*#$37)(*&#)$ 7$-+,,) .(#)#/0 7*$8&#9:;<$.=>$-+#?6$ 6+#5&@,3$7)$?6@7*,$#)$(#+6#+7*,$6#%,+ 7)@$%7+)3$*"7*$*",$A?,3*$*#$(#)*+#'$B&#/733$ %&''$6,+6,*?7*,$*",$-+,,@ .(#)#/0C %%%C,*(4+#?6C#+4 %%%C,*(4+#?6C#+4 =",$E,%$>#+6#+7*,$-7'7F0 The world’s largest companies are converging around biomass in anticipation of a post-petrochemical future. O&#$2+("&*,(*?+,$U7B That doesn’t mean they’re simply grabbing land and natural resources; they’re also investing in new technology platforms to transform plant-derived sugars (from food and fibre crops, algae, all kinds of plant -,),+7' ON matter) into industrial products. The gravitational pull of biomass is creating new constellations of corporate V&''3 convergence across diverse industry sectors. G,+,$7+,$H#?+$,F7/6',3I M?N#)* LC$M?N#)* O?*7/7F$ 1. Chemical giant DuPont and Oil giant BP have a joint venture, Butamax, which aims to commercialize fuels derived from seaweed. In early 2011, DuPont bought Danisco, maker of enzymes and specialty food ingredients – the two companies had a pre-existing =7*,$T$U0', partnership to produce cellulosic ethanol. DuPont already sells a bioplastic derived from maize. DuPont (Pioneer) is the world’s 2nd largest seed company and 6th largest pesticide company. :C$J#'7K0/, PJ$E750 Dow Chemical, Unilever, Chevron, Bunge Ltd., the US Navy and Department of Defense are all partnering with California-based M#% synthetic biology company, Solazyme, O?)4, >",/&(7' which defines its market areas as fuels, PJ$M,6*C chemicals, nutrition and health #H$M,H,)3, sciences, and specializes in transforming “low cost plant sugars P)&',5,+ into high-value renewable oils.” Solazyme is also partnering with J#'7K0/, Japan’s San-Ei Gen (a major manufacturer and distributor of food 8#A?,**, R+S+,3 ingredients) to develop algae-based >",5+#) food ingredients and has partnered with France’s Roquette Frères to J7)Q.&$-,) launch Solazyme-Roquette Nutritionals, a joint venture commercializing a suite of algae- derived food ingredients. && !"#$%&''$(#)*+#'$*",$!"##$+%&'$'()* WC$.5#'57$J2 Chemical giant BASF and pharma giant Roche have partnerships with biotech/synthetic biology company Evolva .5#'57 SA (Switzerland), which connects its “technologies and product pipeline with companies who have the resources and skills to conduct late stage product development and 2B?)@7 marketing [and]… share in the value of these products through E?*+&*&#) a mixture of milestone, royalty and supply agreements.” Evolva O2JR acquired Abunda Nutrition, its partner in the quest to synthetically produce vanilla (July 2011) and partners with International Flavor & Fragrances to synthetically produce another “key flavouring ingredient.” Evolva also partners with the US Army Research Office to discover compounds that PJ$2+/0 inhibit the growth of the bacterial pathogen Burkholderia 8,3,7+("$ 8#(", pseudomallei. ZHH&(, V,+(,@,3QO,)K Y)*,+)7*&#)7' @#$O+73&' N+#(*,+$T$-7/B', R'75#+$T R+74+7)(,3 >",5+#) O?)4, 2/0+&3 J",'' =#*7' -?7+7)& XC$2/0+&3 -+?66#$VT- Procter & Gamble, Chevron, Total, Shell, Mercedes-Benz V&(",'&)$=&+, do Brasil, Michelin Tire, Gruppo M&G (plastics manufacturer), Bunge Ltd. and Guarani are all partnering with California-based synthetic biology company, Amyris. According to Biofuels Digest, Amyris is “best understood as a web of partnerships, which form the core strategic element in its capital-light, distributed path to market.” J?6,+Q>#)3#'&@7*,@$=E>$>#)*+#' According to the authors: The interest of this ranking is not that it exposes unsuspected powerful players. Instead, it shows that many of the top actors 147 companies controlled nearly 40 belong to the core. This means that they do not carry out their business in percent of the monetary value of all isolation but, on the contrary, they are tied together in an extremely transnational corporations in 2007.1 entangled web of control. This finding is extremely important since there That’s the finding of a new study published was no prior economic theory or empirical evidence regarding whether and in July 2011 by researchers at Switzerland’s how top players are connected. The top holders within the core can thus be ETH Zürich, based on an analysis of 43,060 thought of as an economic ‘super-entity’ in the global network of transnational corporations (TNCs) located corporations. A relevant additional fact at this point is that 3/4 of the core 2 in 116 countries. Just 737 firms account for are financial intermediaries. (Financial intermediaries include, for 80% of the value of all TNCs. example, investment banks, brokerage firms, insurance companies, etc.) %%%C,*(4+#?6C#+4 &&& Z5,+5&,%I$ !"#$!&''$>#)*+#'$*",$-+,,)$.(#)#/01 Y33?, N'70,+3 In the lead-up to the June 2012 Earth Summit (Rio+20), the The quest to secure biomass (and the technology platforms notion of a “great green technological transformation” that can transform it) is driving corporate alliances and enabling a “green economy” is being widely promoted as the creating new constellations of corporate power. Major players key to our planet’s survival.3 The big idea is to replace the include: Big Energy (Exxon, BP, Chevron, Shell, Total); Big extraction of petroleum with the exploitation of biomass (food Pharma (Roche, Merck); Big Food & Ag (Unilever, Cargill, and fibre crops, grasses, forest residues, plant oils, algae, etc.). DuPont, Monsanto, Bunge, Procter & Gamble); Big Chemical Proponents envision a post-petroleum future where industrial (Dow, DuPont, BASF); and the Mightiest Military (the US production (of plastics, chemicals, fuels, drugs, energy, etc.) military). depends – not on fossil fuels – but on biological feedstocks transformed through high technology bioengineering platforms. Many of the world’s largest corporations and most powerful governments are touting the use of new technologies N#'&(0 – including genomics, nanotechnology and synthetic biology In the face of climate chaos, financial and ecological – to transform biomass into high-value products. meltdowns, and pervasive hunger, governments preparing for Rio+20 will be eager to embrace a technological transformation (of any color) that promises a politically Y/67(* expedient Plan B for the planet. But if business as usual is not an option, governance as usual is not an option either. New, The greatest storehouses of terrestrial and aquatic biomass are more socially and ecologically sustainable economic models located across the global South, and they are safeguarded are needed to safeguard the integrity of planetary systems for primarily by the peasant farmers, livestock-keepers, fisher our and future generations. Authoritative and innovative anti- people and forest dwellers whose livelihoods depend on them. trust mechanisms (that do not currently exist) must be created ETC Group warns that the bioeconomy will spur even greater to rein in corporate power. International policymakers must convergence of corporate power and unleash the most massive bridge the current disconnect between food security, resource grab in more than 500 years. The corporate agriculture and climate policy – especially by supporting food “BioMassters” are poised to commodify nature on an sovereignty as the overall framework for addressing these unprecedented scale, destroy biodiversity and displace issues. All negotiations must be informed by strong marginalized peoples. participation of social movements and civil society. In the absence of bold action by governments and the creation of new governance structures, the Green Economy will perpetuate the Greed Economy. &5 !"#$%&''$(#)*+#'$*",$!"##$+%&'$'()* !"7*[3$&)$*"&3$+,6#+*$7)@$%"0 !",+,$%,[5,$B,,) !",+,$%,$7+,$7)@$ For more than 30 years, ETC Group (first as RAFI) has %",+,$%,[+,$4#&)4
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