Time to fix Europe’s dumbest climate policy
Europe’s Members of Parliament are set to make a decision on energy that could condemn the region to suffer more intense effects of climate change.
As the MEPs enjoy the traditional summer holidays, news reports are going around that wildfires are raging in Europe.
This is not a one-off event spurred on by weather phemomenon like El Nino. It is a clear sign that fires and drought will increasingly threaten the European region as this report from The Guardian shows.
Unless the MEPs have their heads buried in the sand, reports like Reuters that Wildfires rage across Europe as climate alarm sounded should have popped up in their news notifications.
As Europe burns, the holidaying MEPs may condemn other nations, most at risk of climate change when they return to office to decide on energy sources for how Europeans drive, fly or control the climate in their homes.
As the MEPs enjoy the traditional summer holidays, news reports are going around that wildfires are raging in Europe.
This is not a one-off event spurred on by weather phemomenon like El Nino. It is a clear sign that fires and drought will increasingly threaten the European region as this report from The Guardian shows.
Unless the MEPs have their heads buried in the sand, reports like Reuters that Wildfires rage across Europe as climate alarm sounded should have popped up in their news notifications.
As Europe burns, the holidaying MEPs may condemn other nations, most at risk of climate change when they return to office to decide on energy sources for how Europeans drive, fly or control the climate in their homes.
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The first victims of Europe’s dumbest climate policy will surely be Pacific islanders who have “tried almost everything—from giving speeches in knee-deep seawater, to shouting and crying—to draw attention to the impacts of climate change on their nations.”
The islanders pleas have sadly fallen on deaf ears in the European Parliament which has decided that continued use of fossil fuels is more important than the survival of a handful of small island nations. |
What hope do these islanders have when the fossil fuel industry has thrown tens of millions of Euros to dress up fossil fuels as green energy?
Not much. This well funded campaign to dress up a fossil fuel as green energy has been criticized from major environmental groups including Friends of the Earth, Global Witness and EEB which proclaimed Europe’s hydrogen strategy as “a gift to fossil fuel companies.”
Cosmetically improved fossil fuels may represent an easy solution to the EU’s energy crisis but they also represent a grave threat to the EU’s food security as the blistering drought of 2022 impacts Europe’s food production.
In spite of climate change’s threats to Europe’s food production, the EU is inexplicably targeting the farming community to reduce the bloc’s emissions. This is not going down well as farmer protests in the Netherlands continue to rage with new reports of Spanish, Italian and Polish farmers joining in.
Targeting the agricultural sector to reduce emissions is a curious policy when food security and a circular European economy can contribute so much more to climate change goals. It actually looks dumb when one considers that the EU can reduce much more of its emissions if it would increase the use of biofuels in its renewable energy mix.
A Joint statement from EU biofuels, food and feed chain partners on key RED vote in Parliament has challenged the MEPs.
Now it will be up to the full European Parliament to decide in plenary in September on a final position. With so much at stake on the issues of increasing both EU energy and feed & food autonomy as highlighted in the EU Council declaration, it is clear the Parliament needs to recognise the potential of sustainable crop-based biofuels as an important component of EU renewable energy policy and a key provider of EU protein-rich co-products for feed use until 2030 and beyond.
Critics of biofuels have played up a food vs fuel problem when edible sources are burnt for energy but when fossil fuel driven climate change is threatening the same farms that produce food, their argument is moot.
Therefore, restricting the use of biofuels to a mere 7% has to be the dumbest EU policy on climate change. While the same threat posed by climate change to food supply is obviously present in biofuel supply from European farms, FEDIOL, the EU vegetable oil & proteinmeal industry association, offered a smart solution in a single tweet.
Crop-based #biofuels replace fossil fuels allowing the EU to reduce its dependence on fossil fuel imports and, as shown with the #Ukrainecrisis, they provide a buffer of raw materials quickly available for food use 🌻🌴🌽
It goes without saying that the EU will have to change its mulish attitude towards imported crop-based biofuels including palm and soy. Its attitude against palm-based biofuels can only be described as cutting off its nose to spite its face. Nowhere is this more evident than the EU refusal to consider palm wastes for energy.
Yet palm oil production wastes like palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) are starting to play a key role in sustainable flights.
As China looks towards reducing its dependency on coal, it is making a meaningful step towards that by investing MYR6 billion to produce hydro treated vegetable oil and sustainable aviation fuel in Malaysia. This is a sound response to UN Secretary General, Antonio Gutierres, who has made endless calls to countries to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.
This will produce a first-generation biofuel which the EU has sworn, it will stay away from. In light of the climate crisis and the EU’s need for renewable energy, what options does it have?
The best option for guilt free renewable energy lies in a huge, untapped natural resource. However, in order for the EU to access this renewable supply, the bloc has to acknowledge that palm oil, the crop, is a renewable source of energy.
Published August 2022. CSPO Watch
Not much. This well funded campaign to dress up a fossil fuel as green energy has been criticized from major environmental groups including Friends of the Earth, Global Witness and EEB which proclaimed Europe’s hydrogen strategy as “a gift to fossil fuel companies.”
Cosmetically improved fossil fuels may represent an easy solution to the EU’s energy crisis but they also represent a grave threat to the EU’s food security as the blistering drought of 2022 impacts Europe’s food production.
In spite of climate change’s threats to Europe’s food production, the EU is inexplicably targeting the farming community to reduce the bloc’s emissions. This is not going down well as farmer protests in the Netherlands continue to rage with new reports of Spanish, Italian and Polish farmers joining in.
Targeting the agricultural sector to reduce emissions is a curious policy when food security and a circular European economy can contribute so much more to climate change goals. It actually looks dumb when one considers that the EU can reduce much more of its emissions if it would increase the use of biofuels in its renewable energy mix.
A Joint statement from EU biofuels, food and feed chain partners on key RED vote in Parliament has challenged the MEPs.
Now it will be up to the full European Parliament to decide in plenary in September on a final position. With so much at stake on the issues of increasing both EU energy and feed & food autonomy as highlighted in the EU Council declaration, it is clear the Parliament needs to recognise the potential of sustainable crop-based biofuels as an important component of EU renewable energy policy and a key provider of EU protein-rich co-products for feed use until 2030 and beyond.
Critics of biofuels have played up a food vs fuel problem when edible sources are burnt for energy but when fossil fuel driven climate change is threatening the same farms that produce food, their argument is moot.
Therefore, restricting the use of biofuels to a mere 7% has to be the dumbest EU policy on climate change. While the same threat posed by climate change to food supply is obviously present in biofuel supply from European farms, FEDIOL, the EU vegetable oil & proteinmeal industry association, offered a smart solution in a single tweet.
Crop-based #biofuels replace fossil fuels allowing the EU to reduce its dependence on fossil fuel imports and, as shown with the #Ukrainecrisis, they provide a buffer of raw materials quickly available for food use 🌻🌴🌽
It goes without saying that the EU will have to change its mulish attitude towards imported crop-based biofuels including palm and soy. Its attitude against palm-based biofuels can only be described as cutting off its nose to spite its face. Nowhere is this more evident than the EU refusal to consider palm wastes for energy.
Yet palm oil production wastes like palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) are starting to play a key role in sustainable flights.
As China looks towards reducing its dependency on coal, it is making a meaningful step towards that by investing MYR6 billion to produce hydro treated vegetable oil and sustainable aviation fuel in Malaysia. This is a sound response to UN Secretary General, Antonio Gutierres, who has made endless calls to countries to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.
This will produce a first-generation biofuel which the EU has sworn, it will stay away from. In light of the climate crisis and the EU’s need for renewable energy, what options does it have?
The best option for guilt free renewable energy lies in a huge, untapped natural resource. However, in order for the EU to access this renewable supply, the bloc has to acknowledge that palm oil, the crop, is a renewable source of energy.
Published August 2022. CSPO Watch
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