Des groupes environnementaux dénoncent que la consultation de l’Union européenne sur la Stratégie 2030 de sa cible Climat est profondément biaisée
Amsterdam, 23 juin 2020 – Faisant entendre sa voix très critique concernant la consultation de l’UE des parties prenantes en vue d’une possible révision en profondeur de sa politique sur le climat, la Coalition mondiale des forêts, représentant plus de 100 ONG et organisations autochtones du monde, accuse la Commission européenne d’adopter une approche biaisée en forçant les parties prenantes à choisir entre les carburants fossiles nuisibles et des biocarburants encore plus dommageables. Elle accuse aussi l’UE d’avoir fait fi des profondes préoccupations exprimées lors d’une consultation antérieure sur les impacts négatifs des politiques énergétiques de l’UE sur les forêts, la faune et la flore, le climat et les communautés, critiquant son appui aveugle à la bioénergie.
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Simone Lovera, Director of the Global Forest Coalition says: “The EU consultation asks us to choose between unacceptably high fossil fuel use or the burning of forests’ wood and other harmful biofuels. These false choices are disastrous for climate, forests and communities. The EU needs to rapidly phase out all fossil fuel and biomass burning, significantly reduce its wasteful energy use, and switch to the cleanest and lowest-carbon sources of energy. None of those priorities are addressed in this sham consultation.”
In a letter sent in lieu of a formal consultation response, Global Forest Coalition expresses two deep concerns that it is unable to address in the consultation format: on the one hand, the EU proposes to increase its share of renewable energy to a maximum of 40% by 2030, which is woefully insufficient for addressing the climate emergency. On the other hand, the EU continues to allow its renewable energy target to be met by burning wood and biofuels. Burning more of those will be disastrous for the climate, biodiversity and communities alike. Currently, around 60% of the EU’s renewable energy comes from bioenergy, most of it from wood, followed by biofuels, including palm oil and soya.
Almuth Ernsting from Global Forest Coalition member group Biofuelwatch adds: “As long as biomass from wood and biofuels from crops such as palm oil, soya or maize are counted towards EU renewable energy targets, those targets will reduce greenhouse gas emissions on paper whilst increasing them in the real world. If we want any chance of keeping global warming to within 1.5 or even 2 degrees, we need to stop cutting down trees for energy and converting land to crop and tree plantations – at the same time as stopping fossil fuel burning.”
In a previous consultation in March, Global Forest Coalition and many other organisations and individuals expressed concerns about the role of bioenergy within the EU Renewable Energy Directive, however, in this new consultation, the European Commission has failed to acknowledge those submissions or any of the concerns raised.
Notes:
The letter sent to the European Commission can be found at: biofuelwatch.org.uk/2020/eu-climate-roadmap-consultation/
Contacts:
Almuth Ernsting, biofuelwatch@gmail.com, +44-131-6232600
Megan Morrissey, megan@globalforestcoalition.org