EU admits biofuel target problems

The European Commission is re-thinking draft rules on reaching the EU’s target to boost biofuels amid strong criticism by green campaign groups and development NGOs that the goal could lead to environmental damage and social dislocation.

The commission is due on 23 January to publish legislation on the production of biofuels, aimed at promoting the use of these
alternatives to oil.
Last Friday, a group of 17 NGOs – including Oxfam and Friends of the Earth – sent a letter to EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs, asking him to introduce much tougher standards for biofuel production or give up mandatory transport biofuel targets altogether.

They argued that the existing draft legislation does not provide protection for important ecosystems, such as savannas or permanent grasslands “that may be threatened by expanding agriculture to meet the EU’s biofuel target.”

“Destruction of these carbon sinks would lead to large emissions of carbon into the atmosphere, thereby reducing or neutralising the benefits from growing biofuels. Neither does the draft text provide any safeguards to protect water and soil resources,” they said in a statement.

They also noted that “large scale biofuel production can cause negative indirect or knock-on impacts such as increasing food and feed prices and increasing water scarcity which would lead to negative impacts on the world’s poor,” in line with earlier studies by a number of experts on the issue.

EUobserver