Biofuel policy goes to court

Four environmental organisations are suing the European Commission over alleged attempts to manipulate the science guiding European biofuel policy.

The lawsuit brought by Client Earth, Transport & Environment, the European Environment Bureau, and BirdLife International, to the EU’s General Court on September 20 challenges the Commission’s failure to release documents containing previously undisclosed information on the negative climate impact of widespread biofuels use in the European Union. It is the second time the Commission has been sued for lack of transparency on EU biofuels policy. The first lawsuit was lodged on 8 March 2010 and is ongoing.

Client Earth says that the law suit is part of a wider campaign to engage in environmental policy discussion with the Commission over the impact of the EU’s 2020 Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which calls upon member states to insure that at least 10 per cent of energy for road and rail transport come from renewable sources by 2020.

In March the International Food Policy Research Group (IFPRI) published a study on behalf of the Commission that suggested that EU biofuel policy would reduce carbon emissions. But the organisations say that the science behind these conclusions was manipulated to ensure an outcome that supported EU biofuel policy.

In the last couple of years the use of biofuel energy in Europe has become a contentious issue. Supporters of biofuels argue that they are a clean alternative to oil and natural gas but opponents say that when pristine land is converted into farmland to produce biofuel crops dangerous amounts of greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere.  

Client Earth Senior Lawyer Tim Grabiel calls the assumptions about EU biofuel use made in the report that lead to these conclusions “widely unrealistic” and “highly curious,” because the report assumes that the use of biofuels in Europe by 2020 will be much lower than member states have indicated in their RED policy action plans. 

Client Earth is demanding to see the messages sent between officials that lead to these assumptions – a request it says the Commission has denied.

By not disclosing these documents the Commission is cutting environmental NGOs out of the policy making process, says Client Earth.

“If we don’t have the information that institutions are using to base their decisions upon then we are really handicapped in influencing environmental policy,” says Grabiel.

A spokesperson for the European Commissioner for Energy, Guther Oettinger, rejects the claim that the Commission is withholding information, retorting that the case was filed prematurely before the commission had taken a final decision on the access request. 

“The allegation that the Commission completely rejected the application for access is unfounded as at least 80% of the documents requested have been fully disclosed,” said the spokesperson.