The U.N.'s top environmental official has backed Cuban President Fidel Castro's recent warnings that the U.S.-backed reliance on ethanol production will increase food prices and global hunger. U.N. Environment Program head Achim Steiner spoke Wednesday in Havana.

U.N. Environment Program head Achim Steiner: “What President Castro points to is something that, for instance, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has also recently also pointed to, that there is significant potential and risk for competition between food production and production for a global biofuels markets. The latest scientific consensus is that we have 10 to 15 years to initiate the kinds of changes that will require fundamental transformations in our energy and transport economies.”

Steiner went on to praise Cuba for solving its energy shortages without undermining a pledge to promote environmentally friendly fuels. Steiner says Cuba has taken important steps toward reliance on wind and solar power.