Plans to increase the use of biofuels in Europe over the next ten years will require up to 69,000 square kilometres of new land worldwide and make climate change worse, a new study concludes.
A report on the research findings, entitled ‘Anticipated Indirect Land Use Change Associated with Expanded Use of Biofuels in the EU’, released today, concludes that an area over twice the size of Belgium will need to be converted into fields and plantations – putting forests, natural ecosystems and poor communities in danger, threatening their livelihood and fuelling hunger.
The new research analyses for the first time biofuel use planned by the EU’s member states in their renewable energy plans and concludes that Europe is set to increase significantly biofuel use by 2020; when biofuels will provide 9.5 per cent of transport fuel – more than 90 per cent of which, it claims will come from food crops.
When indirect land use change is taken into account, biofuels are projected to emit an extra 27 to 56 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per year – the equivalent to an extra 12 to 26 million cars on Europe’s roads by 2020.
Most startling is the claim that unless EU policy changes, the extra biofuels that Europe will use over the next decade will be on average 81 to 167 per cent worse for the climate than fossil fuels.
Under the plans, five countries, the UK, Spain, Germany, Italy and France, will be responsible for over two thirds of the increase in emissions.
The research, commissioned by a coalition of environmental and development organisations including ActionAid, BirdLife International, ClientEarth, Greenpeace and Transport & Environment and undertaken by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) details the indirect land use change impacts set to be caused by biofuels, making it a more realistic assessment of the real world impacts of EU biofuels targets.
Laura Sullivan from ActionAid: “Biofuels are not a climate-friendly solution to our energy needs. The EU plans effectively give companies a blank cheque to continue grabbing land from the world’s poor to grow biofuels to fill our tanks rather than food to fill their stomachs. Europe’s energy policies are putting millions of people in danger, threatening Africa’s fragile food security”.
The full report can be accessed here.
