Say no to palm oil as fuel
- by: Kenneth Kother
- recipient: Helsinki City Transport and the Helsinki City Council
Helsinki City Transport plans to increase the use of palm oil as fuel. Biofuels made out of palm oil could be the only fuel used in the bus traffic already next year. The use of palm oil destroys rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia, leads to the extinction of the orangutan and other species, causes human rights problems and is one main factor in the climate change. Last year, a World Bank report put the loss from deforestation at 2.6 billion tons a year, making Indonesia the third largest source of CO2 on Earth, behind China and the United States.
In 2008 Oxfam estimated that, by 2020, emissions associated with Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil production, stimulated by EU biofuel policies both for biodiesel and the replacement of domestic edible oils, would total around 4.6 billion tons of CO2. Forest clearance and peatland conversion accounts for most of this. This level of total emissions is 68 times the savings the EU hopes to make from using biofuels by 2020.
Public transport should be environmentally friendly and not the opposite!
Please sign the petition, which is addressed to the decision makers in Helsinki!
We the undersigned hope Helsinki City Transport would not use palm oil as fuel in the bus traffic. Public transport should be environmentally friendly and we would like it to be so also in the future. The use of palm oil destroys rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia, leads to the extinction of the orangutan and other species, causes human rights problems and is one main factor in the climate change. Last year, a World Bank report put the loss from deforestation at 2.6 billion tons a year, making Indonesia the third largest source of CO2 on Earth, behind China and the United States.
In 2008 Oxfam estimated that, by 2020, emissions associated with Indonesian and Malaysian palm oil production, stimulated by EU biofuel policies both for biodiesel and the replacement of domestic edible oils, would total around 4.6 billion tons of CO2. Forest clearance and peatland conversion accounts for most of this. This level of total emissions is 68 times the savings the EU hopes to make from using biofuels by 2020.
Using the rainforests as fuel is a huge ecological disaster, which we have to put an end to before it is too late.
Thank you for taking your time to read this letter.
