During the week beginning 11th December, MEPs will debate possible changes to the European Biofuel Directive. This Directive provides that 5.75% of all transport fuel in the EU must come from biofuels. Right now there are no environmental safeguards, so companies have an incentive to buy the cheapest feedstocks - which tend to be palm oil, soya and sugar cane. Across South-east Asia, another 26 million hectares of oil palm plantations are considered to meet the growing biofuel demand. Peat and forest fires, linked to a large part to palm oil production, emit 3-5 times as much carbon globally as the Kyoto Protocol aims to save worldwide from 1990 levels. In South America, all old-growth forests, including the Amazon, are at risk as soya and sugar plantations are expanded. Converting rainforest into biofuel plantation threatens to accelerate climate change - and is hardly what people looking for biodiesel on environmental grounds want to see.

Please tell your MEPs today to ensure that rainforests must be truly protected, which means banning the import of those biofuels which come from unsustainable sources and putting a moratorium on the target until the EU can ensure that it will be sustainably met.

For a draft letter and full details, see here:  http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2006_11_27_alert.php