" European Union policies are creating an artificial market in
biofuels, which is leading to large-scale destructive investment
across the world.
Now, the EU is debating plans to expand biofuels by increasing the
mandatory biofuel target to 10% by 2020, and two committees of the
European Parliament will be voting on those proposals during July.
Two recent studies show that virtually all agrofuels result in higher
greenhouse gas emissions than the fossil fuels they replace.

EU biofuel targets and incentives are already threatening communities,
rainforests and other ecosystems, food security and the climate.
The Members of European Parliament (MEPs) must vote against biofuel
targets and instead support an immediate EU moratorium on agrofuels
from large-scale monocultures.

Please ask MEPs to vote against biofuel targets and support an
agrofuel moratorium..."

"..A letter is ready for sending from
http://www.regenwald.org/international/englisch/protestaktion.php?id=274
all MEPs.

It would also be very helpful if people represented by an MEP could
contact them directly – by phoning them or meeting them in person.
Personal contacts with MEPs are by far the most effective.

MEPs are listed at
 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/members/public.do?language=en .

Some of the destructive agrofuel investments include:

 The accelerated destruction of the Brazilian Cerrado for sugar cane
and soybean: According to the Brazilian NGO Instituto Sociedade,
População e Natureza, 152,000 hectares of land designated by the
government as ‘conservation areas’ are being converted to sugarcane
plantations. According to an IUF report, half of the Cerrado has
already been converted to monocultures and all of the rest is likely
to be destroyed before 2030. This will have cause the extinction of
very large numbers of species, destroy the livelihoods of large
numbers of people, including indigenous communities, and accelerate
climate change by releasing large amounts of carbon held in the soil
and vegetation and destroying an essential watershed for the Amazon
forest.

 High soya prices, guaranteed by government support for agrofuels,
are encouraging investment in new waterways and ports in South
America: In Paraguay, for example, Cargill have been granted
permission for a mega-port in Asuncion, which is likely to pollute the
drinking water supply on which more than a million people depend. It
will also lead to major biodiversity losses and to further soya
expansion inland.

 In Tanzania, large areas of community land are being handed over to
foreign companies to plant jatropha for biodiesel. This includes 9,000
hectares of land which have been handed over to the UK firm Sun
Biofuels plc. This is land on which over 2,800 families – over 11,000
people – depend for their livelihoods. Compensation payments are being
made to the families but are unlikely to be sufficient to access new
land.
None of the ‘sustainability criteria’ being discussed in the EU can
prevent any of those investments.

They do not currently include social criteria but, even if they did,
they could not address indirect impacts and the wider investments
encouraged by high commodity prices.

The greenhouse gas default values which have been proposed do not in
any way reflect the real climate change impacts: Two recent peer-
reviewed studies, by T Searchinger et al and J Fargione et al show
that, at present, virtually all agrofuels result in higher greenhouse
gas emissions than the fossil fuels they replace, provided indirect
impacts are considered. Yet the default values being discussed suggest
that virtually all agrofuels save emissions – something not backed up
by any peer-reviewed study.

Only a moratorium on agrofuels from large-scale monocultures can
prevent further harm being caused by EU biofuel policy. Over 200
organisations from North and South support a call for such an EU
moratorium. All targets and incentives must be dropped because right
now, sustainability cannot be guaranteed."

--
UK Radical Campaigns
www.zing.icom43.net
Motorists contribute to global starvation, environmental destruction
and drink driving by using ethanol.

In message 
, Doug 
 writes
>Now, the EU is debating plans to expand biofuels by increasing the
>mandatory biofuel target to 10% by 2020, and two committees of the
>European Parliament will be voting on those proposals during July.
>Two recent studies show that virtually all agrofuels result in higher
>greenhouse gas emissions than the fossil fuels they replace.
Doug! You wave like a reed in the wind.   One day you'll shock us all by 
having and original thought.
-- 
Clive

On 3 Jul, 19:45, Clive  wrote:
> In message
> , Doug
>  writes>Now, the EU is debating plans to expand biofuels by increasing the
> >mandatory biofuel target to 10% by 2020, and two committees of the
> >European Parliament will be voting on those proposals during July.
> >Two recent studies show that virtually all agrofuels result in higher
> >greenhouse gas emissions than the fossil fuels they replace.
>
> Doug! You wave like a reed in the wind. � One day you'll shock us all by
> having and original thought.

You included one word too many there.  Let me rewrite it: "One day
you'll shock us all by having a thought".

There, that's better.