Biofuels (No. 3)

EDM number 1494 in 2006-07, proposed by Rudi Vis on 16/05/2007.

That this House notes that biofuel producers in the UK and EU are increasingly importing palm and soya oils and cane sugar from the tropics, which are cheaper than homegrown alternatives, spurring tropical deforestation displacing local people and unique wildlife; notes the UN's recent warnings that the carbon dioxide emissions from such land use change will negate any biofuel replacement benefits for decades; notes that food commodity prices are already soaring owing to diversion for bioenergy and that the diversion of rape oil for bioenergy is increasingly translating into increased palm oil imports into the EU, again spurring deforestation; therefore calls for no further renewable transport fuels obligation target announcements for the time being; calls for bioenergy policy to value net `whole world' environmental gains, rather than the quantity of liquid biofuel used; urges the EU to take a principled stance, not merely through labelling, against unsustainable biofuels and biofuel feedstock imports, particularly against deforestation and peat degradation impacts; and joins the UN in urging active international co-operation to protect old growth forests and other high conservation value habitat, including from unbridled biofuel crop expansion.

This motion has been signed by a total of 52 MPs.