A key report from the European Parliament has called for the EU’s 10 percent biofuel target to be scrapped, amidst growing evidence over the impact on wildlife, people and the world’s food supplies. The report by the European Parliament’s Rapporteur for the new laws on biofuels, Claude Turmes concluded that there is “overwhelming evidence to drop the mandatory 10 percent target for fuels from renewables.” Campaigners from a range of Europe-wide organisations welcomed the proposals to scrap the target and urged the industry and environment committees to drop the target.
Sofia Monsalve Suarez from FIAN said: “European demand for crops for fuel is already helping push up food prices and creating a serious food crisis in some parts of the world. Land use for agrofuels is forcing small farmers and indigenous peoples off their lands, causing poverty and hunger. Agrofuels will not solve the hunger problem in the world. They will make it worse.”
Anders Wijkman (Sweden PPE), who is reporting to the Environment Committee on the same legislation, has also called for the target to be reduced, but campaigners say his proposal of eight per cent - designed to “create a market” - cannot be justified. “An eight percent target will cause almost as much damage as a 10 percent target. Pushing up food prices is causing hunger and that fact is inescapable. The EU’s targets should be dropped,” Nina Holland from Corporate Europe Observatory stressed.