Biofuelwatch is a volunteer-led campaign group which receives no commercial or government funding. The aims of the group are set out in the Biofuelwatch policy adopted on 8th June 2007. Anybody who agrees with our aims and who would like to volunteer time for the group or help in any way, please email us at info[at]biofuelwatch.org.uk.
BIOFUELWATCH
POLICY
Terminology:
On Agrofuels: “We can't call this a ‘bio-fuels program’. We certainly can't call it a
‘bio-diesel program’. Such phrases use
the prefix ‘bio-‘ to subtly imply that the energy in question comes from ‘life’ in general. This is illegitimate and
manipulative. We need to find a term in every language that describes the
situation more accurately, a term like agro-fuel. This term refers specifically
to energy created from plant products grown through agriculture.”
Landless Movement of Brazil (MST)
Agrofuels are biofuels made
from crops and trees grown specifically for that purpose on a large-scale, as
well as biofuels from agricultural and forest residues that should be returned
to the natural cycle because they play an important role in maintaining soil
fertility and bio-diversity. Biofuels from true waste, such as biogas from
manure or landfill, or waste vegetable oil, are not agrofuels. Biofuels from algae are not agrofuels either.
Policy aims and principles:
The Biofuelwatch aims and
principles are to
(a) campaign against the use of bioenergy from unsustainable sources, i.e. biofuels linked to accelerated climate change, deforestation, bio-diversity losses, human rights abuses, including the impoverishment and dispossession of local populations, water and soil degradation, loss of food sovereignty and food security;
(b) support organizations which campaign for substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions in all sectors based on overall demand reduction. In the transport sector, this means engine and fuel efficiency, modal transport shifts and overall reductions in transport.
(c) raise awareness of the need to
(d) work closely with those adversely affected by the emerging global agrofuel market, and by biofuel targets and incentives in industrialised countries, including the EU, and to create links and supportive networks with organisations in the global South whose environment, livelihood, food sovereignty, food security and human rights are threatened by large-scale agrofuel monocultures. This includes supporting communities which try to use local, sustainably grown and harvested biomass and biofuels from true waste in order to meet their own energy needs, particularly in low-energy societies;
(e) highlight the environmental and social impacts of the global agrofuel market, including the greenhouse gas emissions linked to agricultural methods, refining and the loss and degradation of carbon sinks, impacts on water and soil, on bio-diversity, on human rights and on food sovereignty and security;
(f) campaign for a moratorium on agrofuels from large-scale monocultures as an immediate step to stop further large-scale investment into agrofuel and related infrastructure projects linked to the destruction of ecosystems and carbon sinks and the loss of farmland on which communities rely for their food sovereignty and food security. This includes a moratorium on targets, subsidies and other incentives. In the UK, this means and an immediate suspension of the RTFO and in Europe of the targets, obligations and incentives arising from the EU Biofuel Directive. Internationally, we support a moratorium on funding for agrofuels from large-scale monocultures, including through carbon market mechanisms, such as the Clean Development Mechanism or Joint Implementation under UNFCCC;
(g) campaign against the use of genetic engineering in biofuel feedstocks or in the refining process because of the high environmental risks involved;
(h) to call for a moratorium on research and development into biomass-to-liquids agrofuels, namely cellulosic ethanol, which carries high environmental risks due to the GM technology involved and, if successful, the potential for increased exploitation of the biosphere, and also Fischer-Tropsch gasification, because support given for this technology will also facilitate the commercialisation of coal-to-liquids technology which, if commercially successful, would greatly increase global greenhouse gas emissions.
(i) develop a clear definition of how much bioenergy generation for combined heat and power is sustainable and acceptable, what mechanisms are required to ensure sustainable sourcing, and in which types of energy networks (ie centralised, decentralised, localised etc) it would be most appropriate;
(j) lobby governments, international bodies and institutions, NGOs and industry in-line with activities (a) to (i);
(k) carry out research and produce publications as a means of highlighting these impacts and so raise awareness in general society, government, multinational institutions, industry and amongst other NGOs.
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