Note: this is for reference only. This action is currently suspended, pending relevant Early Day Motions being tabled in the new Parliament.
Below is the version of our recommended letter to send to MP concerning UK biofuels policy during the current parliament (Be quick! - at the very latest by 8/11) (or download the Word .doc).
It is aimed particularly at opposing new announcements of Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation targets being made in the forthcoming pre-budget statement, or otherwise as part of the Government's expected 10-year carbon budget, as well as seeking exclusion of fresh liquid biofuels from the Renewables Obligation, educating MPs and building support for important principles partially through two current Parliamentary EDMs (Early Day Motions).
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Dear ..........,
I am gravely concerned about the way rising incentives for biofuel use in the UK and elsewhere in Europe are encouraging imports of palm oil-derived biodiesel, and ethanol (used in petrol) from Brazilian sugar cane. These are both linked to deforestation and other serious loss of natural ecosystems, and are able to undercut home-grown alternatives.
The planting of oil palms, which require humid tropical conditions, has led to an estimated 10 million hectares of rainforest clearance on Borneo and Sumatra, according to Friends of the Earth (1). The annual peat and forest fires on these islands which cause massive smogs in the region are spreading with this deforestation, and are widely blamed on plantation owners and human displacement. As they burn down into carbon-rich peat, they are estimated to be causing more CO2 emissions than the entire Kyoto agreement will save (2). There are also widespread reports of Indonesian palm plantation land abandoned, degraded, after a single 25-year planting, whereas the carbon discharged from replacing a hectare of rainforest with oil palms is in the order of 65x the annual carbon savings achievable by using the palm oil output in biodiesel (3), even leaving aside the emissions from associated peat destruction that are occurring.
So, it is not clear whether the carbon discharged from forest clearances will be recouped even after many decades have passed, whereas precious biodiversity and local peoples are being displaced right now from this deforestation.
Meanwhile, the expansion of sugar cane in Brazil is impacting on the Atlantic rainforest, Pantanal forest and wetlands, and Cerrado (savannah), all of which are significant carbon sinks, with internationally important biodiversity. NASA has also found that the rate of deforestation in the Amazon is well correlated with the price of soya, a further potential source of biodiesel.
Many models of the expected carbon savings from biofuels do not take into account carbon discharges from forests and other carbon-rich habitats displaced by some of these crops; and that the increased demand for petrol substitutes and veg-oils (for biodiesel) created by growing European incentives is largely likely to be displaced on to lower-priced imports with these effects, unless the EU takes firm and principled measures to restrict such imports. It has shown perfectly capable of doing this in the case of GM foods in spite of some producer country complaints.
Moreover, palm oil is starting to be burnt in oil-fired power stations and earning Renewable Obligation certificates in the UK as a consequence. There is a strong danger that with any virgin biofuel (and some wastes) being used in this way, the demand for liquid commodities will be displaced on to imports with serious adverse consequences.
Indeed, the south-east Asian palm oil industry regards the rising European biofuel incentives as the strongest business case for its present speculative forest clearances (see news story http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/060224/15/3yy2x.html.) They note that palm oil has a competitive advantage in fulfilling the growing market, and that this applies even if it is another veg-oil that is being diverted for fuel use.
Already 36 MPs (including 3 Efracom members) have signed EDM 2680 "Consequences of biofuel imports", sponsored by Norman Baker, which
"calls on the Government to make no further announcements of Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation targets at the present time, and instead to work to end the incentive for deforestation and serious adverse consequences arising from the growing biofuel market; calls for international co-operation on this matter; and further calls on the European Commission not to enter into trade agreements with developing countries that would foster such destructive trade, as is currently feared."
I believe there should be an EU-wide ban on the bioenergy use of imported palm oil from all tropical countries that have not verifiably ceased deforestation (i.e. most - if not all - source countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia), and of other imports causally linked to deforestation or other loss of highly prized habitat, including Brazilian soya oil and ethanol, or human rights abuses.
I further believe that targets/obligations for liquid biofuels are the wrong instrument, since it is unclear how much land, if any, in the world can sustainably be reserved for large-scale liquid biofuel export to Europe, and within temperate zones, any biomass which can be sustainably grown will lead to considerably greater CO2 savings if used to replace coal, than if processed into liquid biofuel to replace mineral oil.
Even within Europe, serious concerns over the impacts of biofuel crops and use of set-asides for them on biodiversity, soils and water resources have been raised by RSPB-Birdlife (4).
(i) Please will you raise these issues with ministers at DEFRA, and ask that they work with the Treasury and the DTi, in particular to highlight the calls in EDM 2680, and why I believe the UK should make no further RTFO target announcements at the present time;
(ii) I further believe there should be a moratorium on Renewables Obligation certificates for the use in power generation of fresh liquid biofuels, and potentially some waste liquids, at the present time. Please can you raise this matter, and the above reasons, directly with the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.
(iii) Please in the current parliament will you sign EDMs 2680 and 1568. For more on the dangerous course of the European Commission’s current trade negotiations in this regard, see (5).
Yours sincerely,
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(1) www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/burning_palm_oil_fuels_cli_23082006.html
(2) www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/peatfiresbackground.pdf
(3) Calculation set out at www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/sources.php#calc1
(4) http://ec.europa.eu/energy/res/legislation/doc/biofuels/contributions/ngos/birdlife.pdf
(5) www.foe.co.uk/resource/press_releases/eu_condemned_for_forcing_u_27092006.html
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