Scots motorists unwittingly drawn into biofuels fallacy

The UK Government is putting millions of vulnerable people and the environment at risk unless it reviews its new transport fuel policy, said Oxfam Scotland. Scottish motorists will have no choice but to fill their cars with fuel made in part from crops like corn and sugar, in a misguided Government attempt to tackle climate change. All fuel sold at petrol stations will contain a percentage of biofuels.

Despite growing scientific evidence that biofuels could exacerbate rather than reduce climate change, and reports linking biofuels to human rights abuses, slave labour, and rising global food prices, the UK Government has ploughed ahead with its controversial Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO). This means all diesel and petrol from forecourts will contain 2.5 per cent of biofuels as of Tuesday April 15th, costing taxpayers £500m a year.

Oxfam wants the Government to stop its policy until a thorough investigation into the impacts of biofuels has been completed and credible and enforceable standards are in place, which can guarantee that biofuels make neither climate change nor poverty worse. Unless they do, the lives and livelihoods of poor people around the world will be put at risk by rising demands for biofuels.

Oxfam Scotland Campaign Manager, Eilidh Whiteford said, "It is outrageous that the Government is forcing compulsory use of biofuels onto the public without full evidence of their impact. It's like treating a patient with an untested medicine that could make them even more unwell.

"People in poor countries are being driven off their land to make way for new plantations. They are working in punishing conditions for a pittance. The price of food is spiralling rapidly out of their reach and rainforests are being destroyed."

Oxfam has received reports of human rights abuses and land-grabbing in Asia, Africa and South America. Worldwide, 60m indigenous people - the population of the UK -face clearance from their land to make way for biofuel plantations, including five million in the Indonesian region of West Kalimantan.

Eilidh Whiteford added, "Senior Government scientists have condemned this policy and the Prime Minister himself has voiced his concerns about the contribution of biofuels to food price inflation, and yet the policy is being pushed through. At the same time, the European Commission is pushing for even bigger targets, against little opposition so far from EU members including the UK. This inconsistency at the highest levels simply beggars belief."

A review of the policy, announced last month, provided only four weeks for people to put forward their research. Moreover, it is being coordinated by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), which is responsible for the RTFO. This is clearly a conflict of interest and is unlikely to lead to a genuine assessment which takes poor peoples' needs into account.

The Government claims its biofuels will be sustainable, but Oxfam points out that in fact there are no minimum standards, only lax reporting guidelines riddled with holes, making it impossible to guarantee that biofuels haven't been produced at the expense of human rights or the environment.

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