Policy recommendations

  • The European Union must ensure that its Energy Policy will not harm the food security of the urban and rural poor in developing countries, whose daily survival is threatened by substantially higher food prices. It should draw up a strategy to ensure the urban and rural poor are compensated for higher food prices before installing mandatory levels of biofuels;
  • The European Union should abolish its domestic subsidies and import tariffs for biofuels, in order to allow developing countries to profit from the trade opportunities biofuels offer;
  • The European Union should draw up comprehensive sustainability criteria for biofuels, including more ambitious standards for greenhouse-gas reduction a slight decrease of emissions as compared to fossil fuels is simply not enough and the protection of biodiversity and carbon-rich ecosystems;
  • The European Commission should include social criteria in its review of the Biofuels Directive to guarantee that the rural populations who live off marginal lands and forests are not hurt by expanding agricultural production;
  • The European Union should stimulate local processing and the use of sustainable biofuels in developing countries. Small-scale farmer cooperatives should be stimulated to prevent the benefits from biofuel production from only falling into the hands of large-plantation owners.

Case: Biofuels

12-05-2011 MEP Watson questions sustainability of Renewable Energy Directive

Since 2009 the EU has a Renewable Energy Directive (shortly RED) in which is stated that in 2020 20% of all energy should come from renewable energy sources, and 10% of transport energy should be renewable. This target is leading to an increase of biofuel plantation, of which many are in developing countries. Currently, a strong debate is going on in which it is questioned if renewable energy sources like biofuels are indeed sustainable.

ActionAid in cooperation with RSPB/BirdLife performed a research in Dakatcha, Kenya which clearly showed the downside of large-scale biofuel production; that many biofuel crops emit more greenhouse gasses than most fossil fuel extraction operations of similar size and that large scale plantations have a negative impact on social livelihoods of the local people. On May 3rd ActionAid, RSPB and BirdLife organised an event in the  European Parliament on this topic and turned into a fierce debate between the NGOs and the producing company.
Fair Politics has a policy case study on biofuels, which is currently being updated and therefore welcomes the question of MEP Graham Watson (ALDE) to the Commission. In the Fair Politics case study we strive for the biofuel production to take place in a sustainable way. We recommend to include social criteria to make sure that biofuel production will not inhibit food security or the development in third countries.
MEP Watson is therefore awarded one point in out monitoring system towards the Fair Politician of the Year Awards in June.

Link to ActionAid case study

Monitor fair: ALDE

Parliamentary questions
E-003830/2011
18 April 2011
WRITTEN QUESTION, by Graham Watson (ALDE)

Subject: Encroachment of biofuel plantations in third countries
Research commissioned by NGOs has found that the proposed jatropha plantation in the Dakatcha forest region of Kenya will be more environmentally unfriendly, due to GHG emissions, than most fossil fuel extraction operations of a similar size.
The findings linked the European Communitys commitment to achieve a 20 % reduction in GHG emissions by 2020 and the increased number of biofuel plantations in third countries.
What action is the Commission taking to ensure that EU support and funding goes to renewable projects which are actually sustainable and not damaging to the global and local environments in third countries?
Furthermore, what action is the Commission taking to distance itself from projects such as that at Dakatcha, which is considered to be environmentally unsound and damaging to the lifestyle and livelihoods of the people of Kenya?