MEPs must take action today [Tuesday 24 February 2015] to reform biofuel legislation that’s driving forest destruction, damaging the lives and livelihoods of millions of people around the world, and may even be increasing climate changing emissions, said Friends of the Earth.
The call was echoed by almost 200 organisations from around the world in an open letter to the European Parliament asking it to restrict Europe’s biofuel demand because of the devastating impact it has on communities and the environment in their countries.
The Environment Committee of the European Parliament is voting today on proposals to reform EU biofuels policy. Under the 2009 Renewable Energy Directive, 10 per cent of energy used in the transport sector must come from renewable energy sources. However, the target has become increasingly controversial since it became clear that it was to be met almost entirely through the use of biofuels made from food crops such as maize, rapeseed, soy and palm oil.
There are mounting concerns about the impact of increased biofuel use on people and the environment, including:
• The cutting down of forests to grow biofuel crops;
• an increase in land-grabbing by companies;
• an increase in food prices, and the impact this has on the world’s poorest people in particular;
• potentially increasing greenhouse gas emissions – rather than reducing them.
Friends of the Earth is urging the Environment Committee of the European Parliament to:
• Cap the use of biofuels from crops at a maximum of five per cent (of fuel use);
• Introduce accounting for the unintended consequence of releasing more carbon dioxide emissions from biofuels due to land-use changes;
• Promote only those ‘advanced biofuels’ that are truly sustainable.
Friends of the Earth Biofuels Campaigner Kenneth Richter said:
“EU biofuels policy is destroying forests, damaging communities around the world and sending food prices soaring.
“And far from cutting emissions from transport, the biofuel targets may be causing an increase in climate-changing pollution.
“MEPs must take urgent action by limiting the amount of crop-based biofuels and ensuring that they don’t cause even more carbon emissions to be released into our atmosphere.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
1. The Environment Committee’s proposals are crucial because they are likely to be rubber-stamped by the European Parliament’s plenary (in a few weeks’ time). The European Parliament and European Council will then negotiate the final outcome of the reform to EU biofuels policy.
2. Friends of the Earth says the EU should be doing more to cut the amount of energy our transport system uses. This should include action to reduce road traffic (through, for example, better public transport) and higher energy efficiency targets. More should also be done to increase the electrification of our transport system.
3. Biofuels – A Change Of Course. Why the European Parliament and Council must reform EU biofuel policy now: Friends of the Earth briefing.
4. The open letter to the European Parliament on biofuels policy reform points out that the EU’s use of palm oil for biofuels has been rising rapidly, driving palm oil expansion globally. The Indonesian government alone plans to double palm oil plantations to around 28 million hectares by 2020 – an area larger than the entire United Kingdom. This relentless drive for palm oil has devastating and often irreversible consequences for people and the environment in countries where it is being grown, including deforestation, land right conflicts and the loss of clean water supplies and food sovereignty. The letter can be read here.
5. Mounting evidence has shown that far from cutting emissions from transport biofuel targets may cause an increase in climate-changing pollution. This is because the additional demand for agricultural land globally to grow more crops for cars leads to forests being cut down in areas of the world were agriculture is expanding rapidly, such as Indonesia and Brazil. This is called Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) and experts have calculated that it could lead to additional climate emissions equivalent to putting an extra 26 million cars on Europe’s roads.
For press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.
Published by Friends of the Earth Trust
