Posted on 23 March 2011
Rotterdam, NL: The Roundtable on Sustainable
Biofuels announced the launch of the RSB
Certification System today at the World
Biofuels Markets 2011 in Rotterdam, NL.
The RSB certification
system provides the assurances operators
need to guarantee the sustainability and
traceability of their feedstocks and fuels.
The new RSB system can put them on a path
towards compliance and certification for
EU market access and other regulated markets.
“The RSB standard is
the result of a 4 year effort building a
global consensus of over 120 organizations
from farmers and biofuel producers to refiners,
regulators, civil society and inter-governmental
organizations.” said Juan Marco Alvarez,
Director of the Economy and Environmental
Governance group at the International Union
for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
“The RSB has elevated
the role of social and environmental safeguards,
emphasizing the critical aspects of sustainability
in the biofuels sector. It is now ready
to start making it achievable.”
The RSB certification
system is operated by RSB Services, which
is the services body of the RSB, providing
access to the certification process, licensing,
auditors’ training among other activities.
“The RSB certification
system offers a unique set of online tools
that take much of the complexity out of
compliance” said Alwin Kopse, RSB Executive
Secretary.
”We are delighted to
provide biofuel operators with a truly comprehensive
standard and a broad range of online tools
to help streamline the compliance process
from crop to tank.”
Biofuel operators that
receive RSB certification will be able to:
Assure their customers
that their product is responsibly produced,
positioning RSB-certified operators favorably
in their procurement processes.
“Know their biomass/biofuel”
by being able to trace the origin of the
product along the entire supply chain through
various chain-of-custody models.
Receive market recognition
as leaders in biofuel sustainable production,
which is increasingly important to regulators
and major fuel buyers.
Benefit from a competitive advantage from
the RSB’s active work to prioritize certification
of their entire supply chain, with clear
benefits for their suppliers and customers
at the same time.
The RSB is a multi-stakeholder initiative
hosted by the Energy Center of EPFL that
has developed a global sustainability standard
and certification system for biofuel production.
The RSB global sustainability
standard represents a global consensus of
over 120 organizations from farmers to refiners,
regulators and NGOs and was intentionally
designed to ensure the sustainability of
biofuels production while streamlining compliance
for industry.
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WWF welcomes DRC government
decision to suspend oil exploration in world
heritage site Virunga
Posted on 18 March 2011
Gland, Switzerland – WWF welcomed the decision
of the government of the Democratic Republic
of Congo to withdraw the permission to drill
for oil in Africa’s oldest park, Virunga.
The environment ministry
of DRC issued a statement today declaring
they would suspend any activities related
to oil exploration on Virunga until it thoroughly
assesses the potential impact of such a
project.
Minister José
E.B Endundo said he would not allow the
UK based company SOCO and Dominion to carry
out any works within the park for now and
said his government would initiate a thorough
and transparent Strategic Environmental
Assessment (SEA) to decide whether such
a project could be considered in one of
the world’s most precious and fragile nature
parks.
"The Environment
Ministry did the right thing, and what we
hope to see next is a firm declaration guaranteeing
there would be no exploration in this iconic
and fragile park now or in the future,"
said Natalia Reiter, a spokesperson for
WWF International.
"It is outrageous to see the narrow
interests of oil companies taking priority
over the need to maintain one of the most
precious places on this planet."
“Allowing oil exploration
in this iconic park would set an extremely
dangerous precedent that even the most precious
places on earth are open for oil and gas
development.”
According to WWF Smart
and well-planned economic development will
help the country and its people. Illegal,
poorly managed, non-transparent efforts
will only aggrevate conflicts and undermine
park management and wellbeing of local communities.
Virunga National Park
is Africa's first National Park, a World
Heritage Site, and also one of DRC's first
Wetlands of International Importance designated
under the Ramsar Convention in 1996, and
is renowned for its extremely high biodiversity
- including the world famous mountain gorillas,
as well as important populations of elephant,
chimpanzee, hippo etc. However there are
now plans to explore and drill for oil throughout
much of the park.
Company maps seen indicate
SOCO, a UK-listed company intends drilling
works throughout the park. But the initial
Environmental Impact Assesment (EIA) has
been rejected by the ministry which in the
statement issued today labelled it “premature
and superficial”.
WWF calls on the Congolese
government to guarantee there would be no
oil exploration in the park and asks the
UK-listed company to respect the law and
abandon the harmful exploration plans.
