British Green Groups Take Aim at Blair Biofuels Plan

LONDON, UK, May 10, 2007 (ENS) - A coalition of some of Britain's biggest green groups Wednesday launched an advertising campaign attacking what they are calling "environmentally destructive biofuels." The groups want changes in the Blair Government's proposal requiring that biofuels make up a percentage of all UK transport fuels starting in 2008.

A coalition including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and WWF, is warning that the government risks implementing a poorly thought out biofuels policy that creates more problems than it solves.

Their ads feature a fuel pump held to the head of an orangutan. "Tell the government to choose the right biofuel," it says, "or the orangutan gets it."

The British environmental groups are concerned that orangutan habitat will be cleared to produce biofuels. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace UK)

But the environmental groups fear that the demand for biofuels created by the government's proposed standard would lead to the clearing of the tropical rainforests of Indonesia - the last stronghold of the endangered orangutan.

The government's proposal, known as the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, RTFO, could, in its present form, "damage the climate and destroy some of the world's last remaining rainforests," the groups said in a statement Wednesday.

The RTFO means that by 2010, five percent of all transport fuel sold in the UK will come from a renewable source. The measure is predicted to save one million metric tons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide each year by 2010.

Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman said, "The Obligation will play a key role in making road transport fuels greener. In carbon terms, it's expected to be the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road by 2010."

The coalition says the RTFO could, "lead to biofuel production causing the destruction of rainforests and wetlands, not only threatening endangered habitats and species but also releasing far more carbon into the atmosphere than could ever hope to be saved by replacing fossil fuels."

British Transport Minister Stephen Ladyman (Photo courtesy Office of the Minister)

It will also contribute to the diversity and security of the UK’s transport fuel supply, and will offer new opportunities to the UK’s biofuel and farming industries, the government says.

The obligation will require road transport fuel suppliers either to ensure that a specified percentage of their sales is made up of fuels from renewable sources, or to discharge their obligation in other specified ways.

The obligation does not differentiate between different renewable transport fuels. Obligated suppliers will be able to meet their obligation by supplying any combination of bioethanol, biodiesel, biogas and any other renewable road transport fuel.

The level of the obligation will be equivalent to 2.5 percent of total road transport fuel sales in 2008/9, rising to 3.75 percent in 2009/10 and five percent in 2010-11 and beyond.

The RTFO is intended to create a strong and stable market for biofuels, and, in the longer term, other renewable fuels, in the UK. By the time the level of the RTFO reaches five percent, it will have created a demand for 2.5 billion liters (660.4 million gallons) of biofuel a year.

The Department for Transport estimates this could save as much as a million metric tons of carbon a year, which would be the equivalent, in carbon terms, of taking a million cars off the road.

But the coalition says the the environmental costs would outweigh the benefits of the policy.

"A rush for biofuels could considerably accelerate the destruction of habitats and loss of wildlife in areas where it already at considerable risk," said Dr. Mark Avery, conservation director at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

"The contribution forests are making to tackling climate change, as well as harboring rare wildlife, is more than enough to make their protection a priority," he said. "Without environmental standards, biofuels are a green con."

Traffic piles up on the Tyne Bridge, Newcastle, England. (Photo by Ian Britton courtesy FreeFoto)

"The risks are so great that biofuels should be the last option to reduce transport emissions, not the first," said Ed Matthew from Friends of the Earth. "Not only has the government got its priorities wrong, its biofuels proposals are so weak that they are in real danger of increasing global warming emissions, not reducing them. The word is incompetent."

The coalition's ads ask members of the public to write to government and demand tough, compulsory standards.

Dr. Douglas Parr, chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, said, "In its current form, this proposal is complacent. It could see biofuel production wrecking the climate rather than helping it, at a time when scientists are warning us that we need to slash emissions to avoid dangerous global warming. The government must sort out this botched plan or risk losing the value that biofuels could offer."

John Alker, senior public affairs officer at WWF-UK said, "A climate change policy that potentially increases rather than cuts CO2 emissions is clearly a nonsense. Biofuels could offer part of the solution to climate change - but government needs to get this policy right in order to do so."

The government consultation on the draft Renewable Transport Fuel Obligations Order closes one week from today. The draft RTFO is online at: http://www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/draftrtfo/

A summary of public responses, including the next steps planned by the government will be published by July 31, 2007 at: http://www.dft.gov.uk/roads/RTFO.