The European Union Wins Big in Fossil Awards

10 November 2016: Today’s Fossil of the Day goes to…the European Union for peddling biofuels and acting like the person with all the gear but no idea. As a bloc of countries the EU has considerable economic and technological clout at its disposal to accelerate the just transition to 100% renewable energy. But unfortunately the EU acted today – during the agriculture negotiations – as if they were blind to their own potential. Even worse the EU served up a nasty smelling dish of false-solutions – like biofuels. The EU knows that the proliferation of biofuels DOES NOT RESULT IN ANY REDUCTION OF EMISSIONS, IT is driving illegal land-grabs, population displacement and an increase in food prices around the world – especially amongst communities most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. So, to relinquish this fossil and claw it’s way back to being the climate leader it once was, the EU needs to take a long, hard look at itself – then recognise its potential to drive deep, transformative decarbonisation without REPLACING ONE PROBLEM WITH ANOTHER.

About CAN: The Climate Action Network (CAN) is a worldwide network of over 950 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in more than 115 working to promote government and individual action to limit human-induced climate change to ecologically sustainable levels. www.climatenetwork.org 

About the fossils: The Fossil of the Day awards were first presented at the climate talks in 1999, in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their ‘best’ to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks.