Environmental Groups Call for Sustainable Use of Biofuels for Transportation

Three Japanese environmental organizations, FoE Japan, the Global Environmental Forum and the Biomass Industrial Society, made a joint proposal for sustainable use of transportation biofuels. This proposal was announced at a symposium titled "Imminent Global Warming in Asia and Low-Carbon Energy Development" held in Tokyo on February 8, 2007.

As part of Japan's efforts to meet the Kyoto Protocol target, the government is now striving to achieve its goal of introducing a total of 500,000 kiloliters of biofuels by 2010. More than 90 percent of the amount, however, is to be supplied by imports. A surge in demand for biofuels from palm oil, sugar cane or other crops can cause serious environmental and social impacts such as inappropriate farmland reclamation and competition with food demand. Concerns about these impacts led the three organizations to issue the joint proposal.

Actually, the rapid expansion of oil palm plantations, a major cause of deforestation in Southeast Asia, has resulted in environmental and social problems including massive destruction of forest ecosystems, loss of biodiversity, and violation of the rights of local people in connection with land acquisition.

The joint proposal urged relevant companies and the government to (1) take drastic measures to reduce the consumption of energy for transportation, (2) give priority to the use of domestic and local biomass resources and biomass that does not compete with demand for food, and (3) assess environmental and social impacts of biomass production and make efforts to conserve ecosystems.


http://www.foejapan.org/en/
http://www.gef.or.jp/en/index.html
- Japanese NGOs Appeal to Gov't for Sustainable Biofuel Use (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/1503-e

Posted: 2007/07/09 12:21:10 PM
Japanese version