Prism Webcast News

OECD SLAMS AGROFUELS

Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Posted in Environment Global Warming Sustainability | Tagged Environment, Global Warming, Sustainability

Brussels, 11 September 2007 - Today Friends of the Earth Europe called for the EU to scrap its
target for using plant-based agrofuels for transport, after a leaked paper revealed the OECD’s
[1] grave concerns about their social and environmental effects.

Adrian Bebb, Agrofuels Campaign Coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe said:
�”Hurtling headfirst down the agrofuels path will be a big mistake, and the OECD is the latest
of a series of respected international bodies to warn against it. The EU risks stimulating
further destruction and poverty in developing countries if it sticks with its current agrofuels
target.”

The report appears as a background document ahead of today’s Roundtable on Sustainable
Development - which will be attended by a number of European Ministers. [2] The report raises
numerous concerns, including:

- The environmental impact of agrofuels can be even worse than that of petrol and diesel.
Natural forests, wetlands and pasture land will be replaced with dedicated crops grown for
energy.
- Large scale expansion of agrofuels will significantly impact on the wider global economy.
Food will get increasingly expensive for at least the next ten years.

Within the background document are two critical recommendations:
�
- Governments are failing to respond to the growing concerns about agrofuels. They should not
create new mandates for agrofuels and should instead phase out their current support.
- More attention should be focused on reducing energy demand and improving vehicle efficiency
as this will cost less than subsidising inefficient new sources of supply like agrofuels.

European Heads of State agreed in March this year to a target that 10 percent of transport
fuels should be met by plant-based agrofuels by 2020. The target however is conditional on
agrofuels being produced sustainably and also on the successful commercialisation of so-called
’second generation fuels’, which are produced by converting biomass to liquid.� The OECD paper
questions whether either are possible.

Mr Bebb continued: “The EU should� put the brakes on agrofuels by dropping its recently-adopted
target and forcing the automobile industry to clean up their cars. Agrofuels are a false
substitute for actually improving vehicle efficiency and taxpayers money should instead be used
to support real solutions to our climate and energy problems.”