Biofuels are being presented as a green solution to the EU’s energy needs.
Their supporters say they reduce carbon emissions and provide a sustainable fuel that will secure the EU’s future energy supply.
But biofuels are far from being a wonder fuel.
All 27 members of the European Union are using biofuels to meet their sustainable energy targets.
But most don’t have enough land available to meet demand in their own countries. So European companies are grabbing land in developing countries to meet these increases in demand.
This is having the effect of pushing poor farmers off of their land – land that they use to grow food to feed themselves and their families, and sell in the local markets.
As land previously used for food production is converted to biofuels, local food prices are soaring. Biofuels have also been linked to recent spikes in global food prices.
This is driving up the prices of staple goods – prices that the world’s poorest people just can’t afford to pay.
Research has also shown that most biofuels don’t actually reduce carbon emissions – so they’re not a green solution to climate change!
That’s why we’re campaigning against biofuels production around the world and the EU’s biofuels targets. We believe that biofuels policies shouldn’t put the lives and livelihoods of the world’s poor at risk.
