Kaizenlog

PR 25/04/2008

Food prices/agrofuels: AD joins European Green MEPs and calls for moratorium on agrofuels

AD spokes person on Energy, Industry and Innovation, Ralph Cassar said AD is joining European Green MEPs in calling for the scrapping of the EU’s 10% target for agrofuels and to establish a moratorium to allow clarification of their use.

Ralph Cassar said:”Agrofuels are exacerbating the current crisis in food prices. Food prices are being pushed up since now certain crops are being considered as ‘fuel’ instead of ‘food’. This together with the complete dependance of the Maltese economy on fossil fuels is hitting hard families with medium to low incomes. Agrofuels only make sense when they contribute to climate protection and that is not currently the case. It was a bad move from the start to replace food crops with energy crops and the 10% agrofuels target that the European Commission is still clinging onto cannot be justified.”

“The boom in production of inefficient agrofuels at a time of rising food prices worldwide is creating competition between food and energy production. To counter this, we support biomass as an energy source, based on efficient use of residues and waste, since this does not compete with food production or contribute to the climate change problem. The current food crisis will only worsen if the consequences of climate change are not taken into account. The EU must now respond and make food security a priority.”

Ralph Cassar called for the Maltese Government to make its position clear about thihs important issue which is affecting the quality of life of thousands of Maltese and Gozitan families.

Ralph Cassar concluded that so-called ‘biofuels’ are in fact ‘agrofuels’ and have nothing to do with environmental protection. They create high risks for food production and the environment.

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