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EU Commission to review biofuels target
24th April, 2008
Biofuels in Europe, using feedstocks such as rapeseed oil, are being reviewed by the Commission
Some experts and critics say the global food crisis is exacerbated by the race to divert foodstocks into biomass for the production of vehicle fuel.
Under the proposals, to be enforced by law within a year, biofuels are to supply a tenth of all road vehicle fuel by 2020 as part of the drive to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by the same deadline.
The 10% target is binding under the proposed legislation. The Commission has been pressed by its scientific advisers, UN authorities, leaders in Europe, non-government organisations and environmental lobbies to rethink the mandate.
The UK has set its own biofuels targets, which saw 2.5% mixed into all petrol and diesel fuel sold on forecourts in the UK as guided under the RTFO. The government wants to increase that to 5% within two years, but has admitted that the environmental concerns could force them to rethink. Ruth Kelly, UK transport secretary, has ordered a review, which is due to report next month.
'The policy may have negative impacts on soil, water, and biodiversity,' Laszlo Somlyody, a scientist for the Copenhagen-based European Environment Agency (EEA), says.
Somlyody's report, published in early April, calls on Brussels to freeze its biofuels policy because of the potential risks to the environment. 'The over-ambitious 10% biofuel target is an experiment whose unintended effects are difficult to predict and difficult to control,' EEA scientists found.
Germany recently announced a retreat from its biofuel policies. Alistair Darling, the UK chancellor, has asked the world's wealthiest countries to assess the impact of biofuel development on the food crisis for a G7 summit this summer.
