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EU Biofuels Goals Will Raise Greenhouse Gas Output, Study Says
2010-11-08 00:01:00.2 GMT
By Alex Morales
Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Biofuels targets in the European
Union could raise emissions of greenhouse gases because forests
and wetlands will be destroyed to grow the crops necessary, nine
environmental groups said in a study.
Energy targets for 23 of the EU's 27 members suggest 9.5
percent of the bloc's transportation energy will come from
biofuels by 2020, said the groups, which include Friends of the
Earth, Greenpeace and ActionAid. The crops may need an area
twice the size of Belgium, and clearing the necessary land could
make the fuels 167 percent more polluting for the climate than
sticking with gasoline and diesel, they said.
"Biofuels are not a climate-friendly solution to our
energy needs," Laura Sullivan, ActionAid's European policy and
campaigns manager, said in the statement. "The EU plans
effectively give companies a blank cheque to continue grabbing
land from the world's poor by growing biofuels."
The EU aims to get 10 percent of its energy for
transportation from biofuels, hydrogen and renewable power by
2020. The target is meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by
20 percent by 2020.
EU energy spokeswoman Marlene Holzner said the targets
require less land than the study suggests and that EU guidelines
prevent the use of deforested land.
"The Renewable Directive says very clearly that it is not
allowed to chop down forests to produce biofuels," Holzner said
in an e-mail. "The same goes for drained peatland, wetland or
highly biodiverse areas."
The study by the campaign groups estimated 69,000 square
kilometers, or 6.9 million hectares, would be needed.
"The production of biofuels can indirectly cause
additional deforestation and land conversion, including of
fragile ecosystems," the groups said. "When existing
agricultural land is turned over to biofuel production,
agriculture has to expand elsewhere."
The 10 percent target would require 2 million to 5 million
hectares of land, and there is enough unused terrain in the EU
that was previously used for crop production to cover its needs,
Holzner said.
She also said that biofuels had "little to do" with a
spike in food prices from 2007 to 2009, rejecting the accusation
from the groups that land-use changes resulting from biofuel
cultivation had "devastating impacts on food security."
The European Union on June 10 set up controls to ensure
biofuels, which are made primarily from crops such as rapeseed,
wheat, corn and sugar, don't come from forests, wetlands and
nature reserves.
For Related News and Information:
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--Editors: Reed Landberg
To contact the reporter on this story:
Alex Morales in London at +44-20-7330-7718 or
amorales2@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Reed Landberg at +44-20-7330-7862 or landberg@bloomberg.net.
