LIB DEMS STEP UP BIOFUELS CAMPAIGN

BRISTOL City Council’s ruling Lib Dem group is urging the government to rethink its subsidies for the use of unsustainable tropical biofuels in electricity generation.
Council leader Barbara Janke has written to Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, saying the use of such fuels – which many people are opposed to – is only commercially viable because of government financial support.
Her letter also urges Mr Miliband to change planning law to make it easier for councils to resist applications for tropical biofuel plants.
This follows strong objections raised by Lib Dems and others against a planning application for a biofuel plant at Avonmouth.
The council last month passed a motion with support from all three main political parties, condemning the use of tropical biofuels for energy production in the UK.
In her letter to Mr Miliband, Barbara Janke says: “In common with many other cities, Bristol is currently being approached by companies wanting to build power plants using fuels such as palm oil and jatropha oil, which are grown in developing countries in Africa and Asia.
“I am very concerned about the impact that the production of such fuels would have on the countries where they are grown.
“The use of these fuel sources creates a market that is leading directly or indirectly to deforestation and loss of agricultural land.
“There is a strong danger to biodiversity, as well as the knock-on effect of taking land out of food production and climate change implications of processing the fuels and shipping them across the globe.”
The letter expresses concern about “the lack of independent verification of claims for sustainability by providers.”
Barbara Janke urges the government to reform its subsidy scheme for biofuels plants, the ROC (renewables obligation certificates) system.
Her letter says: “Without the ROCs that the government provides, there would be no market and the land in developing countries could be returned to food production or left to remain pristine.”
The letter also raises the subject of shortcomings in planning law. “As the law currently stands, it is difficult for councils to factor global implications into determining the appropriateness of a planning application,” it says.
“This has severe consequences for addressing climate change, with councils effectively being forced to be blind to the activities that lie behind, for example, energy production from tropical biofuels.”
Bristol West’s Lib Dem MP, Stephen Williams, recently raised the issue of subsidies in the House of Commons.
In a written answer, Parliamentary Under-Secretary David Kidney told him: “The banding levels (number of renewables obligation certificates (ROCs) per megawatt hour) for all technologies will be reviewed periodically at specified dates.
“The first scheduled review is due to come into effect on 1 April 2013, with work beginning in October 2010. In the case of biofuels, this will also take account of the strategic assessment which the government will be undertaking next year on priorities for the use of biomass.”