We Must Avoid Sacrificing Our Countryside To Fuel Our Cars

23.01.08

‘We must do what we can to address climate change responsibly. But rigid targets for biofuels could put the car before the harvest.’

This was CPRE’s [1] reaction to today’s (Wednesday) Government announcement [2] on the proposed targets the UK has been set for biofuels as part of the EU’s plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. [3]

Ian Woodhurst, CPRE’s Senior Rural Campaigner continued:

‘We need to assess how much of our farmland can be used for bioenergy crops and then plan how to grow and process these crops in ways that do not damage the character of our countryside so that our landscapes and wildlife sites don’t suffer.’

The Government needs to avoid sacrificing the quality of our countryside and its wildlife just to meet targets to provide biofuel for cars.

Two recent reports have questioned the benefits of biofuel crops. [4] CPRE fears that unless the growing, processing and burning of bioenergy crops (both biofuel and biomass) is properly planned, large areas of our familiar farmed landscape could end up as expanses of monocultures surrounding processing plants and power stations. The alternative of transporting bioenergy crops around the country would increase road traffic and could emit more carbon than fossil fuels.

CPRE supports [5] the use of biomass crops where they can make an effective contribution to tackling climate change and where they do not damage the countryside.

Ian concluded:

‘The Government needs to consider carefully the wider environmental implications of setting targets for biofuels and ensure there are real benefits in terms of carbon reductions. It needs actually to tackle climate change, not merely to be seen to be doing so.’

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. CPRE, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is a charity which promotes the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural England. We advocate positive solutions for the long-term future of the countryside. Founded in 1926, we have 60,000 supporters and a branch in every county. President: Bill Bryson. Patron: Her Majesty The Queen. www.cpre.org.uk

2. The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Department for Transport and Defra today (Wednesday) announced that 10% of the UK’s road transport fuels should be from renewable sources by 2020.

3. The European Commission today (Wednesday) published its proposal for a Directive on Renewable Energy which sets out the contribution each EU Member State should make to achieve the EU’s agreed target of securing 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

4. The Select Committee on Environmental Audit in its First Report has concluded that most first generation biofuels have a detrimental impact on the environment overall. The recently published Royal Society report, Sustainable Biofuels: Prospects and Challenges concluded: ‘The selection of land on which to grow the feedstocks is a critical component of the ability of biofuels to deliver sustainable solutions.’ The report also concluded, ‘Several other impacts also need to be evaluated both within the UK and also globally. These include impacts such as those arising from direct effect of change in land use; from just changing the crops being grown in an agricultural landscape, to going from a diverse crop system to monocultures, through to large-scale conversion of biodiverse systems, such as peatlands and tropical forest.’ See http://royalsociety.org/displaypagedoc.asp?id=28632

5. CPRE supports small scale bioenergy developments that use crops from local growers for local energy supply. All bioenergy crop plantings and infrastructure should be assessed on a case by case basis for impacts on landscape, wildlife, the historic environment, and soil and water resources. The crops also need to be certified as greenhouse gas neutral as a minimum and that their production has not damaged the environment. Certification also needs to apply to any bioenergy crops that are imported to avoid the risk of ‘exporting’ environmental damage to other countries.

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