Biofuels: government policy is failing

Back in May we launched a campaign to introduce controls on the way biofuels are produced. We argued that without minimum standards to control production, biofuels could actually do more harm than good in the battle against climate change by accelerating habitat destruction in the forests, peat lands and natural grasslands of Brazil and Indonesia, where much of the actual production would take place.

Almost 3,000 of you supported us by writing to the government as part of the consultation process on their plan to introduce a Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation to promote the use of biofuels as part of the solution to global warming. We were told at the time that the government would take our submissions seriously.

Now that process is over, the report has been published, and the RTFO will kick in in the spring. And guess what - our requests have been ignored. The report includes no plans to introduce any meaningful controls. So what's going on? Well, by refusing to introduce mandatory standards, it looks as though once again the government are more interested in politics than policy. For them the RTFO is good politics because it requires the fewest people to make any significant changes to their lives, while allowing them to promote their own 'green' credentials:

• car manufacturers will be happy as the policy distracts from a much more difficult (for them) debate about fuel efficiency;
• farmers will be happy as they are guaranteed higher prices than previously for their crops;
• and the enormously powerful motoring lobby will not be getting on the politicians' backs.

But in reality, the RTFO is a failure on almost every other level. It represents a failure of environmental policy because there is no guarantee it will contribute to reduced CO2 levels, and is in fact likely to lead to forest destruction as new lands are cleared for biofuel production; it represents a failure of energy policy as it detracts from our urgent need to focus on the real solution to climate change - reducing fuel and energy consumption; and it represents a failure of agricultural policy because our most fertile land needs to be used for food production, not for biofuels.

If this is part of Gordon Brown's attempt to distance himself from the Blair era by focusing on substance rather than style, it's a very inauspicious start.