Reacting to the EU Environment Committee’s vote on biofuels today (Thursday 11 July 2013) Friends of the Earth’s Biofuels Campaigner Kenneth Richter said:

“The Committee has taken a timid step in the right direction by reforming EU biofuels policy – including the decision to penalise biofuels that result in significant greenhouse gas emissions through deforestation.

“But it’s disappointing that a course hasn’t been set to phase out the use of food crops for fuel – instead MEPs have chosen to cap it at a level that is even higher than current use.

“It’s crucial that when they vote again in September the current reforms are not watered down any further.”

The European Parliament voted to include the following amendments to its biofuels legislation to reduce the impact it has on food production and climate change:

• A cap on the use of food crops for biofuels. The Commission has voted for a 5.5 per cent cap on crops being used as biofuels (half the overall 10 per cent target, which will still be in force). Friends of the Earth say this is a step in the right direction, but urges the EU to commit to a complete phase-out of the use of crops for biofuels.

• Measures to prevent the EU using biofuels with a significant climate impact. Biofuels that result in greenhouse gas emissions through deforestation beyond a certain threshold will not be considered a renewable fuel.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1.    A Joint NGO briefing on recommendations to EU on biofuels is here. 

2.    Indirect Land Use Change. As farmers worldwide respond to higher crop prices in order to maintain the global food supply-and-demand balance, pristine lands are cleared to replace the food crops that were diverted elsewhere for biofuels production. Because natural lands, such as forests and grasslands, store carbon in their soil and biomass as plants grow each year, clearance of wilderness for new farms translates to a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Due to this change in the carbon stock of the soil and the biomass, indirect land use change has serious consequences in the GHG balance of a biofuel. According the European Commission’s own research biofuels from crops like soy and rape seed can result in higher GHG emissions than the fossil fuels they are meant to replace.