The EU biofuel policy is likely to cause large scale environmental harm across the world according to a new report published today by BirdLife International.

The report presents real life cases, from across the world, where the production of biofuel feed stocks is leading to the clearing of natural habitats. It further investigates these case studies by analysing them against the “sustainability standards” proposed by the European Commission which are supposed to only allow “sustainable biofuels” to be put on the EU market.

Ariel Brunner, EU Agricultural Policy Officer, stated: “The Commission claims that the biofuel target will be met in a sustainable way, our report clearly shows that this is not the case. EU governments must look reality in the face and make a U-turn on this deeply flawed policy.”

The result of BirdLife’s analysis shows that even the most severe cases of environmental destruction would still be considered as “sustainable” under the proposed EU legislation. This means that if the 10% target by 2020 goes ahead as planned, the EU will be taking responsibility for further precipitating the global sustainability crisis.

The major failing of the Commission proposal is that it ignores indirect effects of biofuel production such as increased consumption of EU Oil-seed Rape driving up demand for South-East Asian palm oil, or US corn ethanol subsidies driving soya expansion in the Amazon.

The standards would also fail to protect key wildlife habitats such as set-aside in Europe or precious wetlands such as the Tana River Delta in Kenya.

BirdLife launched its study ahead of Wednesday’s Council’s discussions (COREPER) where the sustainability standards will be on the agenda. Leaked documents suggest that the European Council is unlikely to bring real significant improvements on the Commission’s proposal criticised in the report.

BirdLife International urges the Council not to green wash a self-defeating and illogical biofuel target by adopting fake sustainability standards. Therefore, BirdLife calls upon EU decision makers to:

– Drop the 10 % biofuel target;

– Focus on reducing energy consumption in the transport sector;

– Enforce strict efficiency standards on cars;

– Force oil companies to clean up their fossil fuels (by phasing out flaring, by not using tar sands and investigating in more efficient refining technology);

– Adopt strong sustainability criteria for all bioenergy, whether used for transport or heating or electricity. These standards should include a minimum of 60% of greenhouse gas savings and need to be accompanied by effective social and environmental criteria;

– Indirect land use change, which means, biofuels displacing food production which then move into natural habitats such as rainforest, should not be ignored but factored into the sustainability standards.

BirdLife Malta’s Executive Director Tolga Temuge said: “Climate change is undoubtedly the biggest challenge the human being faces today. Reduction in carbon emissions is, therefore, an important step to fight this. However, alternative energy sources including biofuels need to be dealt with in such a way so as not to cause other environmental problems, as shown by the BirdLife International report. A holistic approach is needed to reduce over-consumption while ensuring food security for all those on this planet who desperately need it,” Temuge concluded.

The report ‘Fuelling the ecological crisis – six examples of habitat destruction driven by biofuels’ can be downloaded by clicking on the following link: http://www.birdlifemalta.org/media/reports/mediareports

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