37 groups call on EU to abandon plans for a 10% biofuel target

37 environmental and human rights groups have called upon the
Members of the European Parliament to drop support for a 10%
mandatory biofuel target during next week’s vote on the Thomsen
report.

They warn that biofuel targets are already linked to serious social
impacts in the global South, such as rural depopulation, health
impacts, land conflicts, human rights violations. They also warn
that most biofuels are produced from large-scale monocultures and
that those accelerate global warming because they speeding up the
destruction of forests, peatlands, healthy soils and other
ecosystems on which we depend for a stable climate.



The letter also points out that none of the proposals made by the
European Commission and by member states offer any safeguards
against serious environmental and social harm. The European
Commission’s proposal ignores all social impacts and would allow
biofuels to be certified as sustainable even if they come from
plantations where communities have been forcibly evicted.

The organisations warn MEPs not just against the 10% biofuel target
plans to be debated next week, but also against separate plans
for `greenhouse gas reduction targets’ from transport, contained in
the draft Fuel Quality Directive, which are effective biofuel
targets