Deutsche Version

Burning wood, animal fats, soy, rapeseed and palm oil, wheat, corn, potatoes, sugar cane and many other crops, to get out of burning fossil fuels? 

This is a ‘climate cure’ worse than the disease. 

 

Tell European policy makers to enact laws that leave burning behind and shift public support to true renewable energies.

• Simply replacing fossil fuels in energy production and transport with wood, food crops and even animal fats, is no solution to the climate crisis.
• Whether for power, heat or mobility, the energy sources of the future must not be linked to polluting and climate wrecking emissions, occupy valuable land or lead to the destruction of forests and other ecosystems, speeding up a disastrous loss of species around the globe. 
• Future energy sources must be developed in a socially just way, respecting in particular the rights of the most marginalized people and impacted people in vulnerable areas. 

→ Policy support, subsidies and other financial incentives must be diverted from bioenergy to real solutions such as wind, solar and geothermal energy. 

 

Burning has become a threat to our very existence

Burning has played a critical role in the history of humanity, from providing warmth, to expanding our diets, to powering the industrial revolution. But our dependency on fossil fuels has come with a considerable cost to the planet.

Our planet is heating up, threatening the very existence of our societies and the ecosystems that support them. The mining and burning of fossil fuels is polluting our soils, waters and air - often affecting the most marginalized people the greatest.

In recent years, the climate crisis has driven a technological transformation and a shift away from fossil fuels towards green, climate friendly alternatives. But governments and fossil fuel companies still can’t stop the urge to burn. To replace fossil fuels, they are promoting the burning of plants and animal fats, a fake climate solution they smartly labeled ‘bioenergy’.

A ‘climate cure’ worse than the disease

Today, we burn biofuels made from soy, rapeseed and palm oil, from animal fats, from wheat, corn, potatoes, sugar cane and many other crops in our cars and forest biomass in power plants. It is a ‘climate cure’ worse than the disease. They benefit corporate profits while leaving a trail of destruction. 

Burning biomass and biofuels is leading to the widespread loss of forests and the destruction of other ecosystems, with a devastating impact on the lives and rights of local communities.

In many cases, it even leads to more emissions than the fossil fuels it replaces.

Governments must focus their support on truly sustainable technologies like wind and solar. 

It’s time to move away from stone age technologies to ones that can meet the challenges of the 21st century.

It’s time to allow nature to heal. It’s time to breathe clean air again. It’s time to end fake climate solutions.

It’s time to move beyond burning.

 

This petition is supported by Transport & Environment, Oxfam, Zero, Ecodes, DUH,  RGO, Legambiente, Birdlife, Focus, Biofuelwatch and Ecologistas en Acción.