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The renewable energy industry has urged the UK government to quickly implement rules to tackle unsustainable biofuel production after a new report found the growth of cultivated agricultural land for biofuels could lead to more than double the greenhouse gas emissions released by fossil fuels.
The study entitled Driving to Destruction was published today by a coalition of Non-governmental organisations, including ActionAid and Greenpeace. It argues that EU plans to boost biofuels will see an area of land twice the size of Belgium converted to agricultural use by 2020.
"Land conversion on such a scale will lead to the release of carbon emissions from vegetation and soil, making biofuels more damaging to the climate than the fossil fuels they are designed to replace," the report concluded.
Total net greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels could be as much as 56 million tonnes of extra carbon dioxide per year, it predicted, meaning that once land ...