UK Protests call for Biofuel Targets to be Scrapped‏

UK Protests call for Biofuel Targets to be
Scrapped

16 April 2008 joint press release by Biofuelwatch and Global
Forest Coalition

London-There were demonstrations in London
yesterday and groups across the UK also protested against the introduction of
mandatory biofuel blending. Outside Downing Street speakers from Friends of the
Earth, Global Forest Coalition, GM Freeze, Campaign against Climate Change and
Biofuelwatch condemned the government's decision to go ahead with it's biofuel
policy against overwhelming evidence of catastrophic impacts on climate,
communities, biodiversity and food security.

Other protests were held
outside the constituency offices of Ruth Kelley, Secretary of State for
Transport, and Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for the Environment. More
protests took place at BP and Tesco fuel stations. BP and Tesco are two of the
companies with significant investment in biofuels (also called agrofuels) from
large-scale monocultures. They have been strongly lobbying for mandatory
biofuel blending.

"The UK has chosen to ignore a vast mountain of
evidence that biofuels are contributing to hunger, climate change, deforestation
and human rights abuses," said Dr. Rachel Smolker, main author of "The Real Cost
of Agrofuels." [1] She continued, "Perhaps they are counting on new technologies
using cellulose from wood and grasses, but these won't sidestep the problems
either. Whatever feedstocks are used will result in further expansion of
industrial monocultures, possibly including genetically engineered trees. The
bottom line is that there is a limited amount of land available, a large
population to feed and a desperate need to preserve remaining biodiverse
ecosystems. Instead of focusing on improving efficiency and reducing
consumption, the UK is mandating further destruction."

Almuth Ernsting
from Biofuelwatch adds, "Protests against the agrofuel industry and this
government's biofuel policies will not end. The government is talking about
vague 'sustainability standards', whilst agrofuels are causing ever greater harm
to the climate, to forests and other ecosystems, to communities in the global
South, to biodiversity worldwide, and to food sovereignty and food security. We
need a moratorium on all agrofuel incentives and targets to prevent those
catastrophic impacts."

On 8 April, twenty-nine UK and international
groups wrote to the UK government, calling for an agrofuel moratorium and
demanding a suspension of the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, and
opposition to new EU biofuel targets - both the proposed 10% biofuel target in
the Renewable Energy Directive, and the inclusion of biofuels in the draft new
Fuel Quality Directive. [2] Around 200 organisations from North and South have
signed a call for an EU moratorium on agrofuels from large-scale monocultures,
and there are separate calls for a U.S. agrofuel moratorium and for an African
agrofuel moratorium, as well as growing number of declarations from the Southern
groups that are deeply concerned about the impacts which biofuel policies in
Europe, including in the UK, are having on their communities, food sovereignty
and environment. [3]

Contact:
Almuth Ernsting,
Biofuelwatch, +44-1224-324797 (UK, any time)
Orin Langelle, Global Forest
Coalition, +1.802.578.6980 (U.S., any time)