Organizations around the world call on the government to end palm and soy in fuels

Dozens of social and environmental entities, including Ecologists in Action, have sent a letter to the Government in which they demand that Spain abandon the use of palm oil and soy oil to produce fuels. The petition, an initiative of Brazilian and Indonesian organizations and supported by numerous European organizations, highlights the significant opposition to the use of raw materials that cause the deforestation of huge areas of land, increase the price of staple foods and increase greenhouse gas emissions. The signatory organizations make an explicit call to the Government of Spain to support the proposal of the European Parliament to abandon palm and soy in 2023, placing itself on the path marked by eight EU countries that have already eliminated these raw materials from their fuels.

In total 35 organizations from America, Asia and the European Union have signed the letter that Ecologists in Action, in collaboration with Ecodes and Transport & Environment (T&E), has sent to the Government of Spain, urge the executive of Pedro Sánchez to support “an immediate and simultaneous elimination of soy and palm from biofuels in Europe”. The entities demand this measure as a way to “stop deforestation and human rights violations” that Brazil and Indonesia currently suffer as a result of the expansion of soybean and palm crop fields “that, paradoxically, tend to have an image of sustainable.”

The sending of this letter comes at a time when the Government has to decide its position in the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive, within the Fit for 55 package of the European Union. One of the key issues of this review is the decision by member states whether or not to support the elimination of palm and soy from fuels in 2023, a measure that was already approved in September by the European Parliament. In the coming weeks, Parliament, Council and Commission will enter into negotiations to agree on the final text of the directive, with the issue of biofuels being a key element.

Spain’s position on this issue is of enormous importance throughout the Union. Spain was the first producer of biodiesel from palm oil in the EU in 2020 and has one of the largest industries in Europe when it comes to the production of biofuels made from vegetable oils. According to data from the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITERD), in 2020 Spain sold 1.4 million tons of biodiesel and almost 400,000 of hydrobiodiesel (treated with hydrogen). Of those amounts, 52% of biodiesel and 93% of hydrobiodiesel were produced from palm and soybean oils, from countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Argentina, according to Ecologists in Action in a statement.

Pablo Muñoz Nieto, coordinator of the biofuels campaign of Ecologists in Action: “The Government of Spain cannot continue to support raw materials that cause deforestation and hunger around the world, and that aggravate the climate crisis. There are no longer any excuses for not eliminating palm and soy: other EU countries have already done so and the European Parliament has unanimously decided to abandon them.”

On the other hand, the European Commission has already classified palm oil as an unsustainable raw material in 2019 —a decision transposed by Spain into its legal system in September 2021—, the abandonment of palm and/or soy already decreed by 9 EU countries (Austria, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden) and Germany’s intention to abandon biofuels from food crops. The letter sent by dozens of organizations mentions the existence of a “historic opportunity” for the Government to change its “traditional policy” of supporting these unsustainable fuels.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Despite its promotion during the last decades within the framework of the Renewable Energy Directive as a clean fuel, today it is demonstrated that fuels made from palm and soy, reports Ecologists in Action, emit up to three and twice as many greenhouse gases as fossil fuel, respectively, if the emissions associated with the destruction of carbon-rich ecosystems to grow palm and palm are taken into account. soy instead. According to data from Transport & Environment, around 39 Mt of palm and soy biodiesel has been burned since 2011, generating 381 Mt of CO2eq (including ILUC emissions), that is, “245 Mt more than we would have emitted if we had used fossil diesel instead”.

In addition, the use of food crops – vegetable oils or cereals, among others – to produce fuels is causing sharp increases in the price of staple foods, which translates into high levels of food insecurity in different parts of the planet. For example, as a T&E study showed, 10,000 tonnes of wheat – the equivalent of 15 million loaves of bread – are burned every day in EU vehicle depots.

Source: Renewable Energies