Bio-Fuel

The Government Bio-Fuel Policy - 30th September 2007

For some months Leicester FoE has been campaigning strongly over the damage being caused by the boom in bio-fuel production from totally unsustainable sources. As part of our campaign we have been promoting a petition on the government's e-petition website, calling for changes in UK Government policy.

FoE nationally has now decided to run a major campaign on the issue and has adopted a position similar to the one Leicester has been taking locally, so this seems like a good time to ask other local groups to back our petition, both by encouraging group members to sign it and by helping to publicize it more widely.

I copy below the most up to date version of an e-mail that we have been using to promote the petition, which I hope you will feel able to forward to your members and beyond. This e-mail also encourages people to e-mail their MP, urging them to sign EDM 1494 and I attach a draft letter for doing this. This draft letter for your MP also contains links to many articles providing more background.

Best Wishes

Malcolm Hunter

Leicester Friends of the Earth

Government bio-fuel policy boosts CO2 emissions and is a disaster for bio-diversity and world food supplies

If you care about these things, please sign this petition Then FORWARD this information to everyone in your address book, to help the petition reach a tipping point.

What is the problem with bio-fuels?

Some types of bio-fuel, such as those produced from waste, probably have an important role to play, in helping to combat climate change, but environmentalists are becoming increasingly concerned that current UK, EU and US policies are promoting a boom in the production of bio-fuels from sources that are unsustainable. This boom is mainly being driven by the introduction of targets, such as the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, in the UK, which is due to start in April 2008.

These targets are being introduced without any concern for how the bio-fuels to meet them will be produced. They are already leading to soaring world food prices and a big acceleration in the rate at which tropical forests; wetlands and natural grasslands are being destroyed.

Indonesia is being particularly badly affected and the UN predicts that orang-utans could be driven to extinction within just 5 years, unless policies change quickly.

Far from reducing CO2 emissions; this bio-fuel boom is driving them up, because of the CO2 released when forests are cleared; wetlands drained and grasslands ploughed up.

As well as the environmental impacts, there are also more direct human impacts from the boom being encouraged by current policies. There is simply not enough land available to grow both the food we need and to grow bio-fuel crops. This is already leading to soaring world food prices and will ultimately threaten millions with starvation. In addition there are major human rights issues, with many small farmers having their land seized to make way for bio-fuel plantations, with those who resist often being killed.

Finally, by allowing the demand for bio-fuels that they create to be met from unsustainable sources, current policies risk inhibiting the development of technologies to produce fuels from more sustainable sources and are being used to avoid taking action to reduce the demand for fuel, from whatever source.

At lot more information, on the effects of current policies, can be found by clicking on the links in the draft letter attached.

Two things you can do – sign the petition and send it on

Because of the rate at which this bio-fuel boom is taking off, it has become one of the most immediate and urgent environmental issues that we face. Fortunately, because this is quite a discrete area of policy, there is the possibility that enough public pressure will be able to force a change of direction.

As part of a campaign, to try to mobilize this pressure, a petition has been posted on the Government’s e-petition web site; however, to have an impact, it will need tens of thousands of signatures. I am sure that there are more than enough people who will be prepared to sign it, if they hear about it, but those of us who are not rich media barons cannot easily reach that number of people, directly. As a way around this, I am asking everyone who reads this e-mail to not only sign the petition, but also to forward the information to as many other individuals and groups as they can. If enough people send it on, then a tipping point will be crossed and the number of people that it reaches will start to increase exponentially. If you send on the petition, as well as signing it, you will not only be helping create pressure for a change of policy, you will also be taking part in an experiment, to see if it possible to reach a mass audience, without massive financial resources, by using an e-mail cascade.

Currently, the environmental petition with most signatures is one to repeal the Hunting With Dogs Act. I think that we should be aiming to beat it.

Want to do more?

If you want to do more you might also like to e-mail your MP, urging them to sign EDM 1494 (draft letter attached here, if you don’t have time to write your own)

You can write to your MP via WriteToThem.com

Best Wishes

Malcolm Hunter

Leicester Friends of the Earth.