• NGOs warn Barroso on land-use change

    Four environmental NGOs have asked the Commission president to review the EU’s 10% target for biofuels in transport. T&E has also moved to counter misinformation that suggests enough biofuels could be grown in Europe without affecting land use.

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    The four NGOs – T&E, BirdLife, FoE and the EEB – wrote to José Manuel Barroso earlier this month expressing ‘deep concern over the direction EU biofuels policy is taking’ and asking him to order an immediate review.

    The letter says: ‘The 10% target was proposed in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in transport and was adopted by EU leaders on the condition that it can be met in a sustainable way. Evidence is growing that neither of these will be possible if current policy is left unchanged.’

    The letter came a day after the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation added its voice to a long list of concerned institutions by calling for an urgent review of biofuel policies and subsidies.

    CREDIBLE STUDIES?

    In a separate development, T&E has written to the European Voice newspaper, rejecting comments made by the president of a leading biofuels company, that said concerns about food shortages and other effects from using land for biofuel crops were overstated.

    T&E countered with a reply published this month saying the company’s information was based on a study commissioned by the European Bioethanol Fuel Association and written by one of the its former directors.

    By contrast, the Gallagher report for the British government said ‘the displacement of existing agricultural production, due to biofuel demand, is accelerating land-use change … and the balance of evidence shows a significant risk that the current policies will lead to net increases in greenhouse gas emissions’.