15 January 2008 - International
— They seem like
a perfect solution, making fuels from plants
to help cut carbon emissions. The simple
promise of so-called biofuels has led to
many companies and politicians being swept
up in the hype. However more and more research
is revealing many current biofuels are a
false solution.
Over the last few years
biofuels seem to have enchanted governments,
car manufacturers and many others who must
cut emissions to prevent dangerous climate
change. US President Bush, hardly a fan
of climate solutions, suddenly started promoting
biofuels to make it appear he was taking
action to cut emissions. Car manufactures
have seized on biofuels as the perfect get-out-of-jail
free card. Under pressure, especially in
Europe, to meet efficiency targets they
have consistently missed for the last 8
years, the manufacturers lobby convinced
EU politicians that biofuels were the answer.
Many biofuels targets
have been hastily proposed in the last two
years for political expediency or to deflect
attention from the efficiency targets car
manufacturers fight tooth and nail against.
But behind the hype, evidence has been mounting
that many biofuels might even be worse than
fossil fuels.
Put very simply biofuel
problems fall in to 3 areas:
Biofuels made from industrial
food crops can produce more emissions due
to large fossil fuel use in their production.
Biofuels from other crops such as palm oil
are often grown on land which has been cleared
of tropical rainforest, generating huge
amounts of carbon emissions.
Increasing demand for biofuels means land
used for food production is taken over driving
up the price of basic foods.
Seriously suspect
We have been arguing
for years that the environmental credentials
of biofuels are seriously suspect. As we
pointed out in our 'Cooking the Climate'
report into palm oil, a growing source of
biofuels, this is anything but a clean energy.
We uncovered how the production of palm
oil is driving the destruction of Indonesia's
rainforest and as a result, C02 emissions
are spiralling.
Despite these big issues
biofuels seemed to be on a roll. The Philippine
government passed a new law forcing car
owners to use a certain amount of biofuel
when they fill up their cars, whilst the
EU pledged that biofuels should make up
10 percent of transport fuel by 2020. And
other countries, like the UK, have fallen
for biofuels. The UK government are pushing
through a law that will demand all transport
fuels contain 5 percent biofuel by 2010.
However recently there
have been signs that the politicians who
first fell for biofuels might be belatedly
realising they have made a big mistake.
The EU Environment Commissioner,
Stavros Dimas, has thrown the EU's biofuel
target into disarray when he stated that
it would be better to miss the EU target
on biofuels than to trash the environment
and push more people into poverty. Speaking
to the BBC, Dimas admitted that - "we
have seen that the environmental problems
caused by biofuels and also the social problems
are bigger than we thought they were. So
we have to move very carefully". He
went onto claim that the problem would be
solved when he unveils tougher environmental
and social standards next week. But the
fact is without really strong criteria the
EU target is effectively redundant.
To top it all, the UK's
leading scientific body, the Royal Society,
has released a report warning that biofuels
risk failing to deliver significant reductions
in greenhouse gas emissions from transport,
and could even be environmentally damaging.
Is the tide turning?
These events signal
that the tide is possibly turning against
biofuels and that politicians are just beginning
to wake up to the dangers of mass biofuel
production.
If we are going to use
biofuels, we need to make sure that they
are part of the solution, not contributing
to the problem. That means not tearing up
the rainforests to make way for biofuel
crops just so that the car industry can
continue to drag their feet on the issue
of improved fuel efficiency.
Real energy solution
are clearly outlined in our Energy [R]evolution
report. Truly sustainable energy technologies
such as wind, solar and geothermal energy
coupled with massive energy efficiency increases
can deliver climate friendly, clean and
secure energy. For transport there are significant
efficiency gains to be made before biofuels
should be considered.
Governments would do
better ensure cars are far more fuel efficient
than wasting time and resources on promoting
false solutions.
