We launched a new report on biofuels today. It was based on some work we commissioned to support our campaign to protect the Dakatcha woodlands in Kenya.
Dakatcha is a beautiful area of dry tropical woodland with patches of scrub and farmland speckled throughout. It’s home to 20,000 people, mostly subsistence farmers, and some very special wildlife - including a bird called the Clarkes Weaver that is only found in one other place in the world.
Our partner organisation in Kenya, Nature Kenya, has been working to protect the area for many years, and has a long history of working with local people there to support them in earning an income that doesn't depend on destroying the forest. But over the past year the RSPB, along with Action Aid, has joined Nature Kenya to fight a proposal to destroy 50,000ha of woodlands and scrub to plant jatropha. The developer is owned by an Italian company that intends to use the jatropha to make biofuels for the European market.
Our analysis aimed to find out what the consequences of this development would be for climate change. The consultants we used considered the emissions from everything from clearing the forest to planting and growing the crop, as well as the benefits of replacing normal fossil fuels with the biofuel that would be produced.
The result? These biofuels will have a carbon footprint 6 times bigger than fossil fuels!
Biofuels are subsidised generously in Europe because they are supposedly green fuels. But this is causing catastrophes for wildlife and people like the one that will take place in Dakatcha unless we can stop it. That’s why the RSPB is calling for these subsidies to end, and for Governments in the UK and Europe to focus their efforts to cut emissions from transport by increasing efficiency and supporting electric cars instead.