150 scientists and economists call on Commission to recognise biofuels' indirect impacts
Sat 15 October 2011
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More than 150 scientists and economists have written to the European Commission calling for it to recognise that biofuels production can have indirect impacts on land-use, and for the resulting emissions to be taken into account in assessing which biofuels help in the fight against climate change.
The letter was organised by the Union of Concerned Scientists, an American not-for-profit group,that has taken positions on indirect land-use change (iluc) in statements to other bodies.
The letter says: ‘Without addressing land-use change, the European Union’s target for renewable energy in transport may fail to develop genuine carbon savings in the real world. It could end up as merely an exercise on paper that promotes widespread deforestation and higher food prices.’
The scientists join a growing list of people and bodies warning the EU that ignoring iluc could cause the EU’s biofuels target to increase greenhouse gas emissions, not reduce them.
The Commission’s position is still that ‘scientific uncertainty’ prevents it from taking Iluc into account. While the scientists’ letter does admit there are uncertainties in estimating the magnitude of indirect land-use emissions from biofuels it adds, "a policy that implicitly or explicitly assigns a value of zero is clearly not supported by the science. All the studies of land-use change indicate that the emissions related to biofuels expansion are significant and can be quite large."
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