RSPB, WWF, Greenpeace, Oxfam and Friends of the Earth joint statement on biofuels
The group's full statement is:
The current political and business enthusiasm for renewable biofuels is understandable. This emerging industry could play an important role in tackling climate change. However, without appropriate safeguards, this flagship policy could have disastrous unintended consequences - actually increasing carbon emissions, intensifying deforestation and causing extensive negative social impacts.
We are concerned that Government's plans to promote biofuels through the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), lack these precautions.
Greenhouse gas emissions savings from different biofuels vary widely and some can even result in an overall increase. The RTFO as proposed fails to distinguish between the biofuels that can contribute most to tackling climate change.
In addition, without strong, mandatory standards in place the RTFO will attract biofuels produced at the expense of forests, peat lands and natural grasslands in places such as Brazil and Indonesia. As well as being hugely important habitats, their destruction will add huge volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Making biodiesel from soy planted on cleared rainforest takes 200 years before it could be considered carbon neutral.
The expansion of tropical crops such as palm oil is also linked to the loss of indigenous peoples land rights, human rights abuse and the destruction of local communities' natural resources.
To gain our support, the RTFO must:
Although additional measures may become necessary, with these safeguards in place, biofuels are much more likely to contribute to a reduction in emissions from the transport sector without damaging the environment.
We are concerned that Government's plans to promote biofuels through the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), lack these precautions.
Greenhouse gas emissions savings from different biofuels vary widely and some can even result in an overall increase. The RTFO as proposed fails to distinguish between the biofuels that can contribute most to tackling climate change.
In addition, without strong, mandatory standards in place the RTFO will attract biofuels produced at the expense of forests, peat lands and natural grasslands in places such as Brazil and Indonesia. As well as being hugely important habitats, their destruction will add huge volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Making biodiesel from soy planted on cleared rainforest takes 200 years before it could be considered carbon neutral.
The expansion of tropical crops such as palm oil is also linked to the loss of indigenous peoples land rights, human rights abuse and the destruction of local communities' natural resources.
To gain our support, the RTFO must:
- Ensure that biofuels meet strict externally audited, widely accepted and mandatory sustainability and greenhouse gas balance standards, including at least a 50% saving on greenhouse gases compared to fossil fuels, taking a whole life-cycle approach.
- Take account of the greenhouse gases caused by land-use change and forest clearance to grow biofuels so that where high carbon land-uses are lost, no saving is claimed.
Although additional measures may become necessary, with these safeguards in place, biofuels are much more likely to contribute to a reduction in emissions from the transport sector without damaging the environment.
No comments:
Post a Comment