[This action has ended, but please view comment(s) that follow] The Department for Transport are consulting on the Draft Renewable Transport Fuel Obligations Order (basically the UK's own 'biofuel directive'). The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) requires 5% of UK transport fuel to come from biofuels by 2010 and the Government are looking at substantially increasing that target after 2010. They acknowledge that this could lead to large-scale deforestation - but the only 'safeguard' they propose is a reporting requirement - i.e. companies have to complete a form to say that their biofuels have been produced sustainably - no independent auditing (and certainly no way anybody is going to check the reality on the ground in Brazil or Indonesia...). The consultation will end on 17th May. You can find the full consultation text here: http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/draftrtfo/ . Large numbers of grassroots organistions which represent communities in the global South have issued declarations to warn that Europe's drive for biofuels is threatening their livelihoods, food security, rainforests, biodiversity and, in some cases, human rights. You can send your personal response to rtfo.consultation@dft.gsi.gov.uk . Alternatively, you can send a standard letter drafted by Biofuelwatch - this will only take you two minutes. Just go to http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/protestaktion.php?id=163 . Underneath that action alert, there are a few other very important ones which you might like to look at, too! Secondly, I have just found out that somebody has put up an e-petition to Tony Blair which says "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop promoting biofuels as an alternative to petroleum." You can sign the petition by going to http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/notobiofuel/ . Many thanks! Almuth Ernsting |
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And please don't use Greenpeace's model response unamended
Today Greenpeace, WWF, FoE, RSPB and Enoughsenough are running a full page advert in several UK national newspapers over responding to the government's RTFO consultation.
The headline is "Tell the government to choose the right biofuel or the orang-utan gets it" (picture shows a petrol pump pointed at an oran-utan's head). They advise in the advertisement calling for compulsory sustainability standards for biofuels, and to say no to 'deforestation diesel' and yes to real 'green fuels'. The webpage with link to a copy of advert is at: www.greenpeace.org.uk/biofuels
The campaign is unclear on the issue of which biofuels are green, which could reflect some debate among them as to how to define this.
I suggest an email to all of them to ask:
(i) Please oppose targets for biofuels and biomass, since they force a certain amount of land for this use regardless of how high food prices are at any one time, which means the targets one way or another force malnutrition of the poor and deforestation etc at such times;
(ii) Please oppose the 5% UK biofuel targets already announced, and proposals to increase them;
(iii) Please do not promote signals to government that biofuels will be green if they have sustainability monitoring. The FAO, Canadian Government and palm oil industry all already note that an increase in rapeseed oil use for biodiesel in the EU is indirectly causing increased EU palm oil imports*.
There is no established mechanism to disconnect an increase in demand from increased uptake of land at the expense of carbon stores, biodiversity, food production or small farmer livelihoods.
(iv) Please oppose the current EU policy favouring liquid biofuels over solid biomass, even though the latter often produces much higher emissions savings from the same land.
(v) Please do not compromise on the above for the sake of the largest possible NGO coalition. Merely calling for mandatory sustainability certification as you are doing will do almost nothing to avert the problems you are rightly highlighting.
* See http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuelwatch/message/371, http://www.agr.gc.ca/mad-dam/index_e.php?s1=pubs&s2=bi&s3=php&page=bulle..., http://sg.biz.yahoo.com/060224/15/3yy2x.html
Yours,...
The contact email addresses or screens are: info@uk.greenpeace.org , whenisenoughsenough@hotmail.co.uk , http://www.wwf.org.uk/sitehelp/feedback.asp , http://www.foe.co.uk/feedbackcomment.html , http://www.rspb.org.uk/contactus/