HONG KONG (Reuters) - Biofuels are likely to speed up global warming as they are encouraging farmers to burn tropical forests that have absorbed a large portion of greenhouse gases, climate scientists warned.

The specialists, who gathered for an international conference in Hong Kong, rang the alarm bell as Malaysian palm oil futures prices hit all-time highs this week, helped by new demand for the vegetable oil from the biodiesel sector.


"Some of these alternative energy schemes, such as biofuels, are truly dangerous," said James Lovelock, an independent scientist known for the Gaia theory.

"If exploited on a large scale, they will hasten our downfall," he said in a video message delivered from Oxford.

Preserving tropical forests is seen as key to mitigating global warming caused by greenhouse gases, as they capture a large volume of carbon dioxide emissions.