To the Prime Minister:

The UK has some of the best and most accessible renewable resources in the world. There are enough wind, wave and tidal resources to meet both domestic energy needs and to export energy to other countries.

As with any form of energy, developing these resources requires major investment. This needs to be supported by a strong independent Green Investment Bank able to fund viable projects as soon as possible. This will help unlock the scale of private investment required to stimulate a prosperous low carbon future, boost economic recovery, and help make Britain globally competitive.

We call upon the Government to ensure that the UK meets its renewable energy goals by ensuring the Green Investment Bank is properly capitalised with a low carbon remit covering energy efficiency and the full mix of clean renewable energy options from off-shore wind to community-scale renewables.

Clean energy currently contributes about 8% of the UK’s electricity supply. The UK Government is committed to producing 15% of our energy, about 35-40% of our electricity, from renewable sources by 2020.

It has been estimated that some £550 billion could be required for the UK to hit this target, and that a new public financial institution needs to be created to hasten the timely transition to a low carbon economy.

An independent and well-capitalised Green Investment Bank with the ability to issue bonds could leverage much greater investment from the private sector. Its remit should cover energy efficiency and the full mix of renewables, from off-shore wind to community-scale generation.

Without Government support for clean energy we risk an uncertain future where opportunities for job creation are not realised and the threat of dangerous climate change remains unchecked.

Background

Article 7a of the European Union’s Fuel Quality Directive sets a mandatory 6% greenhouse gas reduction target for Europe’s transport fuels by 2020. The methodology for achieving this is currently being discussed by European decision makers, but current proposals fail to take account of the higher greenhouse gas emissions of fuels derived from tar sands and would do nothing to restrict imports into the EU of the world’s most climate hostile transport fuel in commercial production today.

The Co-operative, Friends of the Earth Europe, Greenpeace and WWF all have serious concerns regarding this omission and believe this could prevent Article 7a from meeting its stated goals - to “encourage the use of lower greenhouse gas intensity fuels” and “reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel pathways”.

Influencing Europe

In 2009, when the draft methodology for Article 7a was published it penalised tar sands fuels by recognising that they emit 25% more greenhouse gases than conventional petrol and diesel. However, earlier in 2010 it came to light that all reference to the tar sands had been removed following lobbying by the Canadian Government and some of the big oil companies.

During 2010 and 2011 we will be putting pressure on European decision makers to put this right by recognising within the Directive that tar sands fuels emit no less than 25% more greenhouse gases than conventional petrol or diesel. This would restrict imports into the EU and send a clear message to the world that tar sands fuels have no role to play in the transformation to a low carbon global economy.

In recent engagement with the European Commission they have indicated that they would take action to recognise tar sands fuels as different to conventional petrol and diesel by the end of 2011. This is a positive development but no indication was given as to the extent to which they will be penalised.

To ensure tar sands fuels are sufficiently penalised, amongst other activities, we will present the photo petition to the European Parliament Petitions Committee in spring 2011. We hope to have tens of thousands of ‘faces’ on the petition with a call for action that would be difficult for EU decision makers to ignore. If you haven’t already, please ‘add your face’ to our photo petition to “keep tar sands out of Europe”.

To the President of the European Parliament:

The EU’s Fuel Quality Directive of 2008 contributes to the binding EU reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Europe by setting a legal target to reduce GHG emissions from transport fuels used in the EU by 6% by 2020. The detailed measures to implement this EU law must therefore take account of the higher GHG emissions of transport fuels derived from tar sands and control EU imports. The production of synthetic crude oil from tar sands emits on average 3 times more GHG emissions than conventional oil production. From a well to wheel perspective, the resulting fuels emit 18% to 49% more GHGs compared to the EU average for petrol. If fuels derived from tar sands feedstock were to be treated the same as petrol and diesel within the Fuel Quality Directive, or recognised as having only marginally increased GHG emissions, future imports of these high carbon fuels could jeopardise the EU target to reduce GHG emissions in transport fuels.

We call upon the European Parliament to ensure the Fuel Quality Directive achieves its goals of “encouraging the use of lower GHG intensity fuels” and “reducing GHG emissions from fossil fuel pathways” by ensuring the implementing provisions of Article 7a classify fuels derived from tar sands feedstock as having at least 25% greater GHG emissions than those from conventional crude oil, and that they are allocated a ‘default value’ of at least 107 gCO2eq/MJ as soon as possible.