Back in the 1980s, Bob Geldof urged Westerners to send food to famine-stricken nations in Africa. Now, evidently, he wants Africans to burn food in their car engines. Get this:

Sir Bob Geldof will be a keynote speaker at the 2009 World Biofuels Markets (WBM) congress and exhibition, to be held in Brussels on the 16-18th March.

Reader support helps sustain our work. Donate today to keep our climate news free. All donations DOUBLED!

Evidently, Sir Bob will make the case for biofuels as panacea for Africa’s economic woes. As is often the case, Geldof — organizer of the 1985 bi-continental blowout Live Aid concert — will be in exalted company. Only this time, it’s not the likes of Jagger and Jacko, rather, it’s big-time energy execs and pols.

Sir Bob joins Lord Browne, former CEO of BP, Dr Hermann Scheer, Member of German Parliament and nearly 200 CEO’s and expert speakers.

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Here's How

The events list of main speakers includes another exec tied to BP, as well as the head of Brazil’s sugarcane ethanol trade group (UNICA) and the chief of struggling U.S. cellulosic ethanol company Verenium.