Negative impact of biofuels

Today EU member states will submit plans to meet the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive. It urges that ten per cent of all transport fuel used in the EU come from renewable energy sources by 2020. This type of initiative puts upward pressure on the demand for biofuels and the land used to grown them.

Figures from the European Commission show that in 2007 approximately 26 per cent of biodesel and 31 per cent of boiethanol used in the EU were imported. This means that the impact of increased demand will be felt by developing countries.

To calm the fears of environmental and development advocacy groups the EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger announced a biofuel certification scheme. He says that it is “the most stringent in the world” and that it will insure that companies “meet the highest environmental standards.”

 But activists say this voluntary scheme won’t do enough to insure food security or protect the environment.

To date EU biofuel companies have acquired or requested five million hectares of arable land in developing countries. To meet this ten per cent goal they will require 17.5 million hectors of land says Action Aid and Friends of the Earth Europe.

However, the European Commission has said that to meet this goal would only require an additional two to five million hectares of land.

David Barissa Ringa, Action Aid’s Policy Research Coordinator for Kenya’s Coast Region, is dead set against the directive.

“Hundreds of thousands of hectares have already been taken by various companies, and they are all out to grab lands and grow biofuels in Kenya,” he says.   

This type of land-grabbing is exacerbated by a weak legal frame work for land leasing in developing countries like Kenya.

“The law is such that once you sign over a lease [for a parcel of land], the local communities lose all control of it. It is totally in the hands of the investor,” he adds.

Ringa is equally concerned about the impact that the directive will have on the environment and Sebastien Risso, Greepeace EU’s forest policy officer, shares his concern.

“Dirty biofuels exacerbate climate change and lead to destruction of rainforests,” says Risso.

“Under the current scheme, Europeans wanting to cut their carbon footprint could actually make the problem worse by using biofuels,” he adds.