From the Eurostar

I am writing this blog on my new iPhone sitting on the Eurostar heading to Brussels (see PS). I'm going to a meeting about biofuels and other types of bioenergy in the European Parliament.

The car which I drove to the station this morning is fuelled by fossil fuels (diesel derived from the bodies of long dead plants and animals) with a, currently, small splash of biodiesel (about 2.6%, derived from the bodies of recently grown plants such as oil seed rape or palm oil). The apparent advantage of biofuels is that the ground that grew the plant that was converted into biodiesel can now grow another plant which sucks up the carbon dioxide emitted from the first plant's burning in my car's engine.

So you can see that if the process were totally efficient this would represent carbon recycling and the atmosphere would not get more CO2 as a result. Well it's not a perfect system but you can see how it might help.

Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Because you can sell biofuel crops there is an economic incentive to cut down rainforests to make biofuel profits. Rainforests and other habitats threatened by a spread in biofuel production are great carbon stores and it makes no sense to destroy them on carbon grounds alone. But they are also full of wildlife and provide the homes and livelihoods for millions of people. And it's not even that simple either!  Growing biofuels in the UK clearly doesn't use land that used to be rainforest but it will use land that used to grow food - and we still need that food on this crowded planet so where do we get more land for food production? Back to the chainsaw in the rainforest.

So that's why I am off to Brussels.  The RSPB has campaigned ceaselessly to reduce the impacts of EU and UK biofuels policy on the natural world. Remember the rainforest. - you may be putting a tiger in your tank.

PS  This was written on the way to Brussels yesterday morning - but the technology defeated me so it is posted after the event now!