The EU is provoking a global expansion in industrial bioenergy use and the rapid development and expansion of a global trade in biofuels and wood-based bioenergy.

Of all energy classed as renewable in the EU in 2012, bioenergy and 'waste' accounted for around two-thirds.

By including bioenergy in renewable energy targets, the EU is promoting direct and indirect subsidies for it, claiming that it is a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels.

But according to the International Energy Agency, renewable energy is "energy derived from natural processes (e.g. sunlight and wind) that are replenished at a faster rate than they are consumed."

Bioenergy does not meet this definition as there is no guarantee that all biomass that is burned is replenished, and it is never replenished "at a faster rate" than it is consumed.

Moreover, large-scale bioenergy is far from sustainable, as it relies on a major expansion of industrial agriculture, of monoculture tree plantations, and of industrial logging.

These industrial activities deplete and pollute soils and water, destroy forests, grasslands and wetlands, and destroy the livelihoods of workers, farmers, Indigenous Peoples and other communities, particularly in the global South.

The very scale of industrial bioenergy is a problem in itself

The EU claims to have a very ambitious climate policy and emission reduction targets. But this claim is built on the false premise that large-scale bioenergy is inherently carbon neutral, or at least 'low carbon'.

A growing body of evidence, however, shows that, especially when bioenergy is produced and used on a large scale, it tends to increase rather than decrease carbon emissions when compared to fossil fuels.

Many in the EU claim that the adverse environmental and climatic impacts of large-scale bioenergy can be avoided through the application of sustainability standards. However, standards applied to individual batches of 'raw material' cannot address an issue that is inherently one of scale: the very scale of industrial bioenergy is a problem in itself.

Standards and certification schemes are applied only to specific loads of biomass or biofuel, and have no impact on overall scale and expansion. On the contrary, they may add to the problem by legitimising large-scale bioenergy use in the eyes of the public.

Furthermore, as the Volkswagen scandal has shown, standards and even regulations are ineffective without strict independent enforcement - yet existing biofuel standards and proposed ones for biomass rely entirely on self-regulation by companies and their chosen consultants.

Competing with truly sustainable alternatives, like wind and sun

In the EU, bioenergy tends to compete with less carbon- and land-intensive renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, rather than with fossil fuels, because it fits into the current infrastructure for the latter, and so hinders real change.

Bioenergy can provide a sustainable energy option, but only when produced on a small-scale basis for local energy needs, and only if (for example) the health impacts of indoor smoke, especially on women, are taken into account.

Small-scale local bioenergy schemes could still attract support, for example under Rural Development programmes. In fact, community-based bioenergy schemes often benefit from this type of support already, rather than from the subsidies that stem from the Renewable Energy Directive, which disproportionately boost large-scale industrial schemes.

The EU cannot be allowed to continue the current model of energy consumption, promoted through false assumptions about bioenergy being renewable, when its application at an industrial scale clearly is not. Claims of emission reductions are often false, and come at the expense of land, livelihoods, workers rights, forests, soil and water.

The EU already bears great responsibility for the climate and biodiversity crises currently facing the planet. Claiming more land for bioenergy production, under the false premise that this is a contribution to climate protection, can only increase the already unacceptably high land footprint of the EU.

End the EU's prodigious over-consumption of energy!

We call on the EU to end the current overconsumption of energy, and its huge impact on peoples and ecosystems globally, and to move towards a major reduction in energy consumption with all the changes in current development models that will imply.

A positive step and a good signal for the rest of the world would be to fully recognise the devastating direct and indirect impacts of large-scale bioenergy on people, territories, forests, and the climate, and to exclude bioenergy from definitions of renewable energy and from the next EU RED.

This statement was released this week by Biofuelwatch, signed by 115 civil society organisations and social networks from 43 different countries. Click here to see the original and here for a Spanish version of this declaration.

Background information: 'Bioenergy Out: Why bioenergy should not be included in the next EU Renewable Energy Directive'.

Signatories:

Abibiman Foundation, Ghana

Acción Ecológica, Ecuador

AEFJN (Africa Europe Faith & Justice Network), International

AFAC (Action Communautaire des Femmes

Autochtones du Congo), Democratic Republic of Congo

Africando, Spain

ALDEAH (Alternatives au Développement

Extractiviste et Anthropocentré), France

Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and

Development (APWLD), International

Asociación MONTUBIA, Peru

Asociación pola Defensa da Ría APDR Galicia, Spain

Association Nigérienne des Scouts de l'Environnement, Niger

Attac France

Belantara Papua Sorong, Indonesia

Biofuelwatch, UK/US

Biowatch, South Africa

Blackwater Nottoway Riverkeeper Program, US

Bosques Sin Forestales, Chile

Bumi Bhakti Persada Pasuruan, Indonesia

Censat Agua Viva (Friends of the Earth Columbia), Colombia

Center for Biological Diversity, US

Center for Encounter and active Non-Violence, Austria

Center for Environment, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Center for Indigenous Farming Systems, India

Centro de Estudios Ecuménicos, Mexico

Centro Salvadoreño de Tecnologia Apropiada

(CESTA) / Friends of the Earth El Salvador, El Salvador

Coal Action Network, UK

Coalition Against Landgrabbing, Philippines

COECOCEIBA (Friends of the Earth Costa Rica), Costa Rica

Colectivo Madre Selva, Guatemala

Comisión Par la Defensa de la Vida y La Naturaleza, Guatemala

Comité Oscar Romero de Vigo, Spain

Community Alliance for Global Justice, US

Comunidad Salud Ancestral Ñuke Mapu Newe,n Chile

Corporate Europe Observatory, EU

Crocevia, Italy

Dayak Voices (DVFC Borneo), Indonesia

Denkhaus Bremen, Germany

Dogwood Alliance, US

Earthlife Africa Durban, South Africa

Ecologistas en Acción, Spain

EcoNexus, UK

End Ecocide on Earth, International

Environmental Rights Action (Friends of the Earth

Nigeria), Nigeria

ESAFF - Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale

Farmers Forum Eastern and Southern Africa

ETC Group, International

European Coordination Via Campesina, Europe

European Forum on Nature Conservation and

Pastoralism, Europe

FIAN International, International

Food and Water Europe, Europe

Food and Water Watch, International

Friends of the Earth Australia, Australia

Friends of the Earth International, International

Friends of the Siberian Forest, Russia

Fuel Poverty Action, UK

Gaia Foundation, UK

GISA ( Grupo de Investigación de Suelo y Agua), Venezuela

Global Forest Coalition, International

Global Justice Ecology Project, US

GMWatch, UK

Green Cross Society, Ukraine

Growth Partners Africa, Africa

Grupo de Reflexión Rural, Argentina

ICCA Consortium, International

ICPPC (International Coalition to Protect the Polish

Countryside,) Poland

INFOE e.V., Germany

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), US

Institute of Cultural Affairs Cameroon, Cameroon

JATAM Sulteng (Jaringan Advokasi Tambang

Sulawesi Tengah), Indonesia

JPIC (Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation), Indonesia

Justiça Ambiental (Friends of the Earth

Mozambique), Mozambique

KeFRA - Kenyan Food Rights Alliance, Kenya

Kesatuan Nelayan Tradisional Indonesia, Indonesia

Link-AR Borneo, Indonesia

Maderas del Pueblo del Sureste, Oaxaca-Chiapas, Mexico

MADGE Australia, Australia

Mangrove Action Project, International

Meada Thoamacheat (Mother Nature), Cambodia

Merangat Foundation, Indonesia

Mitra Lingkungan Hidup Kalimantan, Indonesia

Movimiento Mesoamericano contra el Modelo

extractivo Minero - M4, Central America

MUFRAS-32 (Movimiento Unificado Francisco

Sánchez 1932), El Salvador

National Association of Professional

Environmentalists (NAPE) (Friends of the Earth

Uganda), Uganda

NOAH (Friends of the Earth Denmark), Denmark

OPPUK, Indonesia

Organización Rakizuam Mapuche, Chile

Organización Sabiduría del LaKuTuN, Chile

Organización Trepey Pu Lamngen, Chile

Otros Mundos A/C (Friends of the Earth Mexico), Mexico

Plataforma de Solidaridad con Chiapas y Guatemala

de Madrid, Spain

Pragya, International

Pro Wildlife, Germany

Quercus - Associação Nacional de Conservação da

Natureza, Portugal

RECOMA ( Red contra los monocultivos de árboles

en América Latina), International

Red Latina sin fronteras, International

Regenwald Institut e.V., Germany

Rettet den Regenwald e.V., Germany

Salva la Selva, Spain

Samudram Odisha, India

Save Our Borneo, Indonesia

SERIKAT TANI MANGGATANG TARUNG, Indonesia

SERJOS (Servicios Jurídicos y Sociales), Guatemala

SKP KAME (Sekretariat Keadilan dan Pedamaian)

Papua, Indonesia

Solidarity Sweden-Latin America, Sweden

Sunray Harvesters, India

Timberwatch, South Africa

Transnational Institute, International

Traperos de Emaus, Torrelavega, Spain

USC Canada, Canada

Walhi NTT (Friends of the Earth East Indonesia), Indonesia

Woodland League, Ireland

World Family UK

World Rainforest Movement, International

Yayasan Lebah Nusantara, Indonesia

Yayasan Pusaka, Indonesia

Za Zemiata (Friends of the Earth Bulgaria), Bulgaria

Zimbabwe Smallholders Organic Farmers Forum

(ZIMSOFF), Zimbabwe