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Brazil >Help to Prevent an Environmental Disaster in Brazil - No new industrial port in Ilhéus
The governor of Bahia state, Brazil, has a signed a decree to allow an industrial estate and a deep sea port to be built in one of the most biodiverse regions on earth. A UNESCO biosphere reserve, a unique coral reef, migrating humpback whales and sea turtles are threatened. The port will facilitate the export of sugar ethanol, soya and iron ore. It will thus trigger large-scale deforestation further inland. The local population has not been consulted or involved in any way in those plans.
Please click here to sign a letter asking the governor of Bahia to revoke permission for such a destructive development.
Object to the application for a Biofuel CHP Plant in Beckton, London
Past Actions
Papua New Guinea
Click here to take part in this email action run by Ecological Internet.
Please write to the government of Papua New Guinea to protest against plans to destroy 70% of the rainforest of Woodlark Island for palm oil biodiesel. The Malaysian company Vitroplant Ltd has been granted permission for the destruction of biodiverse rainforests, against protests from the island's population. If the project goes ahead, species will go extinct, the marine environment will be harmed and thousands of people will lose their livelihoods.
UK law - MPs to debate and possibly vote on Renewables Transport Fuel Obligation
There is likely to be a vote on the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) Order in the House of Commons in the very near future. The RTFO will make blending of biofuels mandatory in the UK from April 2008. All car drivers will be forced to buy biofuels, including those linked to rainforest destruction, human rights abuses, displacement of rural communities and very high greenhouse gas emissions.
Please write to your MP and ask him or her to vote against the RTFO Order. We do not have the software to allow people to automatically send letters to their MP, so we would ask you to do the following instead:
1. Click here to view letter. Select menu Edit/Select All and then Edit/Copy to copy text.
2. Go to the website www.writetothem.com and type in your postcode.
3. Click on ‘MP’ and complete the form for sending an email directly to him or her. Click on the email box and select Paste.
4. Edit the letter or rewrite as you like.
UK Fishing Fleet plans to use biofuels from Argentinian soya
Please ask the EU and the UK Government to stop funding a project which tries to convert the
UK fishing fleet to biofuels. Most of those biofuels are to come from Argentinean soya. Soya monocultures in
Argentina are the main driver for deforestation in the Chaco and Yungas forests, which is a disaster for the
climate, for biodiversity and for local communities. Soya plantations are linked to large-scale pesticide poisoning,
the displacement of tens of thousands of households, and rising malnutrition rates in Argentina.
Go to www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/protestaktion.php?id=182 to take part in this email alert,
and click here for background information.
This is a joint email alert by Grupo de Reflexion Rural Argentina and Biofuelwatch.
Tesco and Greenergy
Tesco are market leaders amongst UK supermarkets when it comes to biofuels. They are investing heavily in Greenergy, a biofuel company which uses palm oil, soy and sugar cane - crops linked to rainforest destruction and massive greenhouse gas emisisons in many countries. Please ask Tesco now to live up the 'green' principles they have set for themselves and to cut their ties with Greenergy.
27/11/2006
Please ask ADB to stop funding for deforestation
On 6th and 7th of May, ministers from Europe and elsewhere will be meeting in Kyoto for the 40th AGM of the Asian Development Bank. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) have a long record of financing rainforest destruction for palm oil plantations in Indonesia. They are thinking of massively expanding their funding for palm oil and other destructive monocultures through their 'renewable energy budget'. Palm oil and other biofuels grown at the expense of rainforests and other ecosystems, local communities and food production are not renewable energy. ADB are already a major contributor to global warming by financing new fossil fuel power stations and exploration across Asia, and by financing deforestation. Global warming is a threat to all rainforests. Please write to ministers now to demand that ADB must fund neither biofuel expansion nor fossil fuels. Many thanks.
http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/protestaktion.php?id=160
Ask Europe's Head of States to Say No to Biofuel Targets
This action is now closed. Thank you to everyone who took part. For a guide and links to the summit resolution see here.
[Action : Ask Europe's Head of States to Say No to Biofuel Targets
view full letter first in English
view full letter first in Spanish]
from 27/2/2007
Tell European Commission to make correct biofuel choices
This action is now closed. Thank you to everyone who took part. For a brief summary of the outcome see here.
[On January 10 the European Commission will announce new biofuel policy following the European Parliament vote. Tell the EC NOW to make the right choices via Rainforest Portal.]
3/1/2007
LETTER to MEPs
This action is now closed. Thank you to everyone who took part!
The European Parliament's full resolution can be read here. It includes the following significant points (+ good, - bad, * controversial) - see also Birdlife press release.
+ Notes the need for environmental safeguards and the dangers of deforestation (U);
+ Notes that the use of biomass in stationary applications can contribute optimally towards the EU's stated objective of reducing greenhouse gas generation (10);
+ Notes that forest biomass should not over-exploit natural forests (14);
+ "Expects Member States to come up with investment incentives for the production and use of biomass and biofuels that are most efficient from a climatic point of view and...must under no cirumstances lead to the replacement of sustainable local food production" (19);
+ Calls for an EC sustainability review (20);
* Calls for the promotion of whole crop incineration e.g cereals (30);
* Calls for the Commission to introduce mandatory certification for biofuels (44);
+ Calls for GMES land-use monitoring over ethanol production (45);
+ "Recognises that further increasing palm oil production may affect natural forests and traditional food production, causing bio-diversity loss, land disputes and significant releases of greenhouse gases" (46);
* "calls therefore on the Commission" to introduce mandatory sustainability certification of "palm oil-based products", which can be read as including non-bioenergy products (46);
- the ITRE committee's call for a ban on palm oil as a biofuel was rejected in the vote;
* calls on member states "to create appropriate incentives for the sustainable cultivation of energy crops (63);
* calls for CAP and EAFRD funding for the energy use of biomass (65);
+ calls for particular attention to the development of win-win environment friendly biomass production systems (66);
* urges a substantial increase in the guaranteed area for energy crop subsidies with emphasis on high energy efficiency but no exclusions (67);
- urges the abolition of set-asides (68);
- "calls on the Commission to include peat, with regard to the life-cycle aspect, as a longterm renewable energy source for biomass and bioenergy production" (78) - this was an amendment, not drafted by the ITRE committee.
[Please ask your MEP(s) to make the right choices in the upcoming vote on EU Biomass policy in w/c 11th December. There must be safeguards that Europe will not import or grow biofuels at the expense of rainforest destruction, peat fires, or adverse effects on biodiversity, water, soil and the human rights of local communities. There must be a far-reaching ban on imports of biofuels from unsustainable sources, a moratorium on the European Biofuel Directive, and no abolition of set-asides in Europe .]
Read more or Download the .doc
27/11/2006
LETTER to MPs - UK readers only
This action is currently suspended.
[Please write to your MP to oppose any further biofuel target announcements at the present time (such as risk occurring as part of the Government's 10-year carbon budget or in the pre-budget statement), to call for a moratorium on fresh liquid biofuels earning Renewables Obligation certificates, to ask him or her to sign EDMs 2680 and 1568 in the current parliament, and more. (Be quick! - for receipt by 8/11 at the latest for current session)]
Read more or Download the .doc
27/10/2006
SE Asia Peat Fires
This action is now closed.
[Please support the urgent email alert by Ecological Internet to protect and restore south-east Asia's peat forests. Annual peat and forest fires in Indonesia are vastly accelerating global warming, as well as causing severe respiratory problems to local people and driving many species into extinction. Unless the international community acts quickly, Southeast Asia's emissions of carbon and methane from burning peatlands alone may lead to dangerous climate change including massive sea level rises and mass extinctions.]
Go to the alert or Read Factsheet 1
11/10/2006
NPower and Palm Oil
This action is now closed. NPower have now declared that they have dropped current plans to use palm oil. Thank you to everyone who took part!
[The UK introduced the Renewables Obligation to help with the development of clean, climate-friendly technologies. Npower (RWE) want to benefit from government support under the Obligation by burning palm oil from south-east Asia. Palm oil production is linked to the destruction of south-east Asia's remaining rainforests, evictions and human rights abuses, and to peat and forest fires which cause around three times as much greenhouse gas emissions as the Kyoto Protocol is meant to save. Tell Npower that rainforests are not renewable and that they must drop their plans!]
7/10/2006
LETTER to MEPs
This action is now closed.
[Please ask your MEP(s) to call for safeguards that Europe will not import biofuels linked to rainforest destruction or peat fires, nor to adverse effects on biodiversity, water, soil and the human rights of local communities. This will require a moratorium on the European Biofuel Directive, pending a thorough review, and a ban on imports of biofuels from unsustainable sources.]
Read more or Download the .doc
8/8/2006
EU Biofuel Directive Consultation LETTER
[The EU is holding a consultation on its Biofuel Directive, with a closing deadline of 10th July. We highlight the twin dangers of massive deforestation in tropical rainforest belt and displacement of food production, and call for a moratorium until a rigorous certification system can be put in place.]
Sorry, we have now passed the deadline. You can see all the responses on the Consultation page - they make interesting reading. It's great to see so many of you took the time to respond - thanks! We have certainly sent a strong message, and hope for a positive response in the Review. Read more.
Read more or Download the .doc.
27/6/2006
> original material copyright © biofuelwatch 2006