Brussels, 05/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - EU biofuel policy was again slammed on Wednesday 4 September by a development NGO because of the damage that it causes to the poor populations of developing countries by fuelling hunger and bringing about the seizure of land that could otherwise be used for growing food.
In a report entitled “broken promises”, the humanitarian NGO, ActionAid, denounces the support given by the EU to a Swiss project for the production of biofuels in Sierra Leone, which aims to export ethanol to the EU for vehicle fuel tanks as of 2014. According to the NGO, the project of the Addax group, which holds a concession for planting cane sugar, is a cause of poverty and food insecurity for some 13,000 inhabitants of 60 villages in one of the poorest countries of the world, an EU partner.
Sierra Leone is a country of the ACP Group linked to the EU by the Cotonou agreement and classified among the LDC (least developed countries).
ActionAid calls on donors (mainly Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom) to demand that the Swiss group renegotiate its project so that it ceases to harm the local communities whose food crops have been depleted.
The highly critical report was published just a few days before the European Parliament vote on amending the “fuel quality” directive and the “renewable energies” directive, with a view to capping first generation biofuels and taking the ILUC (indirect land use change) factor into account in the production of biofuels. The rapporteur is Corine Lepage (ALDE, France).
On 11 July this year, the European Parliament's environment committee had taken a stance for more sustainable biofuels in Europe, for capping first generation agri-fuels used as renewable energy in transport, and for an expedited transition to second or third generation products manufactured from other sources, such as algae or waste (see EUROPE 10886). The plenary session vote should take place on 10 or 11 September in Strasbourg, but the exact date has not yet been decided. (AN/transl.jl)