Bioenergy, which can be defined as energy generated from renewable biomass
(i.e. living plants and plant components), has been hailed as one of the key
weapons in the battle against global warming. However, as the European
Commission releases its Biomass Action Plan, BirdLife has warned the EU that it
must put in place strong environmental safeguards. Without these, reductions in
greenhouse gas emissions will be negligible and impacts on the broader
environment will be severe.
BirdLife, along with WWF, Greenpeace and the European Environmental Bureau,
believes that bioenergy can become a key source of energy in the future, and
welcomes the EU's efforts to increase its use. However there are serious
concerns that the EU Biomass Action Plan does not guarantee environmental and
social safeguards.
These measures should apply to both European and imported bioenergy, and include
checks on the greenhouse gas balance of the crop. Due to their high level of
inputs during the cultivation and transformation phases, certain biomass
production systems result in levels of greenhouse gas emissions which are not
much lower than those of fossil fuels. Furthermore, the impact of biomass
production on biodiversity, water and soil needs to be taken into account. This
is already a major problem in the tropics, where millions of hectares of forest
have already been converted into soya, sugarcane and palm oil plantations.
As well as worries over the negligible impact on greenhouse gas emissions, there
are obvious major concerns over the potential for rampant destruction of
habitats and biodiversity. This was thrown sharply into focus earlier this week
when a new species of cat-like mammal was discovered in Borneo – in an area
earmarked for conversion to oil palm plantations.
"If managed sustainably, bioenergy can help us to cut greenhouse gas emissions
and restore degraded land," said Ariel Brunner, Agriculture Policy Officer at
BirdLife International. "However, poorly managed production does little to
reduce emissions and can have a devastating impact on the environment."
"Large scale biomass plantation projects like the massive planned oil palm
plantation in Kalimantan, Indonesia, entail the destruction of vast swathes of
rainforest. This not only affects valuable ecosystems, but contributes to
climate change as the rainforests are an important carbon sink," said
Jean-Philippe Denruyter, Climate Change and Energy Policy Officer at WWF. "We
are calling on the EU to ensure such projects will not be supported through
biofuel imports into the EU."