On Tuesday 9 January, around 30 different environmental NGOs from around the world called on MEPs to amend the provisions on bioenergy planned for a 17 January vote at the European Parliament plenary on the revised directive for promoting renewable energies. The NGOs highlight the “serious threat" these provisions pose to the climate and sustainable development.
The current EU proposals would lead to an increased use of trees and agricultural crops for energy purposes, despite the fact that several scientific studies, including those commissioned by the EU institutions and member states, have indicated that this will result in higher carbon emissions compared to those from fossil fuels. In a letter to the MEPs, the NGOs warn that this will also have a damaging impact at social and environmental levels.
The NGOs explain that the provisions included in the revised "renewables" directive will not put a stop to this because they are based on: incomplete greenhouse gas criteria that leave out the most important contributors to net emissions (for both biofuels and forest biomass); sustainable forest management (which is in no way a proxy for accounting for the greenhouse gas impact of burning wood); and flawed land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) accounting (both in the European Union and elsewhere) under which burning trees and crops would still be perfectly possible.
To avoid EU rules on bioenergy having serious consequences, the NGOs are therefore urging Parliament to: exclude from subsidies or other policy incentives the burning of stem wood and stumps, which will typically increase emissions for decades to centuries compared to fossil fuels, and the use of forest biomass in large-scale, inefficient power plants that do not use ‘co-generation’. They are also calling for the phasing out of support for biofuels from purpose-grown crops, and oppose any transport targets that do not exclude their use or that incentivise unsustainable ‘advanced’ biofuels. The NGOs explain that the raw materials for advanced biofuels should be limited to genuine waste and residues that comply with the waste hierarchy, the principle of cascading use and strong sustainability criteria.
The environmental NGOs insist that, “These common-sense reforms would direct public subsidies and private investment away from counterproductive forms of bioenergy and towards cleaner, more sustainable alternatives. They would also provide much needed policy stability for investors, farmers, and forest industries”.
Their appeal is backed up by a letter signed by more than 600 scientists to the MEPs, urging them to amend the provisions in the 2.0 "renewables" directive planned for forestry biomass and prevent damage to the world’s forests and the speeding up of climate change. (Original version French by Emmanuel Hagry)