Europe and the West should stop mandating the use of biofuels in motor vehicles in light of the current global food situation, an environmental lobbying group is urging.
RePlanet, a nonprofit network based in the United Kingdom, is calling for a halt to biofuel mandates in the interest of freeing up grain for global markets. It claims that in 2020, some 3.3 million tons of wheat were used to make biofuel in the European Union alone, while Ukrainian exports amounted to 16.4 million tons. The use of corn for EU biofuels came to 6.5 million tons, while Ukraine exported 24 million. RePlanet called for biofuel mandates to end in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has severely disrupted worldwide grain shipments.
“Europe can and must beat Putin’s global food blackmail,” RePlanet’s founder told The Guardian. “Just as Europe must stop buying fossil fuels from the Kremlin by saving energy, so we must also do our bit to help avoid starvation in the global south by sparing food at home.”
RePlanet also contends that, once the impact of fertilizer, farm vehicles and other factors are taken into account, biofuels have the same carbon footprints, or even larger ones, as petroleum-based conventional fuels.
