14 January 2008 - Caroline Lucas, Green MEP for the South East, has urged the EU’s Environment Commissioner to make radical changes to the EU’s policy on biofuel after he admitted that he had largely underestimated the potentially damaging consequences of its production. The shock admission comes as a new Royal Society report warns of the need for tighter regulations to ensure the environmental benefits of biofuels.

In a dramatic change of heart, Commissioner Stavros Dimas backtracked on his previous commitment to the target set by a EU directive which aims to ensure that 10% of road fuels in Europe comes from biofuel energy by 2010.

However, while Commissioner Dimas stated that it would be better to miss the biofuels target than risk causing irreparable damage to the environment and to affected communities, he refused to lower the target.

Dr Lucas said: “Commissioner Dimas’ contradictory statement clearly demonstrates the EU’s mishandling of biofuel policy. It not only fails to address the gravity of the problems surrounding biofuel production – it also makes a mockery of the EU’s legislative processes by dismissing its own targets as irrelevant.

“While I welcome the admission that large scale monoculture biofuel is absolutely not the transport industry’s golden ticket in the battle against climate change, it comes too late in the day to prevent the industry from jumping on the biofuels bandwagon. EU policy on biofuel up till now has been misguided at best, and only now does Commisioner Dimas appear to comprehend the stark reality of a mass plant-based energy drive.

“I wrote to the Commission more than a year ago to raise concerns over the direction of EU policy, urging him to further consider the environmental and social consequences of biofuel production in the developing world. Large-scale generation of biofuels fails to deliver environmental guarantees at home and risks degrading the land in the South which many rely upon for food.”

While testimonies continue to flood in from the parts of the developing world negatively affected by the biofuels industry, a Royal Society report, ‘Sustainable Biofuels’, published today further hammers home the Green message calling for government regulations to prevent biofuels from harming the natural world and its people.

Dr Lucas continued: “Today’s Royal Society report gives more weight to increasingly hard-hitting evidence showing that mass biofuels do not provide a sustainable green alternative to fossil fuels, and can in many cases have a severely detrimental effect on local eco-systems.

“A letter to the European Commission from several Latin American NGOs last year warned that the EU’s rush to develop large scale monoculture biofuel plantations was leading to massive exploitation of entire populations, as well as a plundering of their natural resources. It also effectively gives the green light to biofuel developers to encroach on land which would otherwise be used by local people to grow food.

“Across Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia, monoculture soybean plantations have been the principal cause of large swathes of the rainforest. The widespread production of sugar cane, ethanol and palm oil in the South has also caused outrage amongst local people. Furthermore, agro toxic chemicals used in these plantations are seriously harming the health of affected populations.

“I call on Commissioner Dimas to urgently rethink the EU’s commitment to its current biofuel policy and not to pass targets into law that he now admits cannot be achieved sustainably. The EU should actively seek to replace it with a less harmful, more sustainable and more environmentally beneficial alternative.”

ENDS