Brussels, 16/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - Prior to knowing the final content of the European Commission's proposal on toughening rules relating to the sustainability of biofuels used in the EU (see EUROPE 10710 and 10694), development NGOs leapt into action on Thursday 16 October - the World Hunger Day - to urge the European Commission to think first of all of hunger and climate change to which developing countries fall first victim, rather than to concentrate on industrial interests. The international alliance of Catholic NGOs for development (CIDSE) fears that the new rules - which are supposed to reduce food-based biofuels to the benefit of increased second generation biofuel production (based on waste) and encourage biofuels with low emission levels linked to the indirect change of soil use - will be weakened. In their opinion, such rules should, on the contrary, be strengthened to protect millions of the poorest people in the world who suffer from the impact of biofuel production.
CIDSE considers that the 5% ceiling for first generation biofuels is the strict minimum and that, in order to eliminate the impact on food prices and hunger, their use should be reduced further.
“We encourage the European Commission to phase out food-based biofuels, which cause volatile food prices, land grabbing and which fail to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A biofuel policy which does not tackle climate change and which takes food out of people's mouths is unworthy of a leading development and climate actor like the European Union. The EU's sustainability criteria need a fundamental redesign, to require businesses to meet a high standard when it comes to social, not only environmental, impacts of biofuel production”, said Denise Auclair from the CIDSE European bureau during the European Development Days (EDDs). “Palm oil is far from a sustainable solution for indigenous people in Indonesia. They lose their land and forest resources, drink polluted water, are treated unequally for their work on the plantations and, if they protest, they face violence”, added Rahmawati Reno Winarni, the director of Sawit Watch, a civil society organisation that controls palm oil production in the country. Indonesian biodiesel export increased from 563 million litres in 2010 to 1,225 million litres in 2011, and Europe has become the largest market for that country (39% in 2011). (AN/transl.jl)