EU exec sued over secret biofuels reports
Legal charges have been brought against the European Union’s executive as documents linked to biofuels and their detrimental effect on the environment have been kept under wraps.
The four environmental groups responsible for the suing say that these reports will add to a growing portfolio of evidence damning biofuels.
The groups, ClientEarth, Transport and Environment, the European Environmental Bureau, and BirdLife International, filed the suit after first gaining access to the documents on 15 October. They claimed that the European Commission failed to release all of the documents by the 9 February deadline under the freedom of information laws.
Some of the reports discuss the possibility of higher EU farm incomes but allude to the fact that biofuels refineries may lead to food shortages for the world’s most impoverished countries. Other documents suggest biofuels will increase the need for land and result in famers from tropical areas expanding their cropland into easily affected areas including wetlands and rainforests, which would have a negative on the surroundings.
The release of this evidence puts the EU 10% target at risk. The EU is aiming a tenth of its road fuel to come from renewable sources by the year 2020.
Nusa Urbancic of transport campaign group Transport and Environment said: ‘Current EU biofuels policy guarantees that Europe will use lots of biofuels, but it doesn’t guarantee reductions in greenhouse gas emission – in fact it seems likely it will make things worse.’
The four environmental groups responsible for the suing say that these reports will add to a growing portfolio of evidence damning biofuels.
The groups, ClientEarth, Transport and Environment, the European Environmental Bureau, and BirdLife International, filed the suit after first gaining access to the documents on 15 October. They claimed that the European Commission failed to release all of the documents by the 9 February deadline under the freedom of information laws.
Some of the reports discuss the possibility of higher EU farm incomes but allude to the fact that biofuels refineries may lead to food shortages for the world’s most impoverished countries. Other documents suggest biofuels will increase the need for land and result in famers from tropical areas expanding their cropland into easily affected areas including wetlands and rainforests, which would have a negative on the surroundings.
The release of this evidence puts the EU 10% target at risk. The EU is aiming a tenth of its road fuel to come from renewable sources by the year 2020.
Nusa Urbancic of transport campaign group Transport and Environment said: ‘Current EU biofuels policy guarantees that Europe will use lots of biofuels, but it doesn’t guarantee reductions in greenhouse gas emission – in fact it seems likely it will make things worse.’
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