EU Sets Limit to Biofuels Derived from Foodstuffs
Guardian (UK) -- September 24, 2012 -- Europe's multibillion-euro biodiesel industry has been dealt a blow by major policy changes outlined by the EU climate commissioner yesterday.The changes proposed by Connie Hedegaard will limit food-based biofuels to 5% of all transport fuels, just above the current level of 4.5%. Green campaigners, who see biodiesel as doing more harm than good, hailed the move as a major victory for the environment. But the biodiesel industry condemned what it sees as a catastrophic U-turn that will cost thousands of jobs.
The EU target is for 10% of transport fuels to be renewable by 2020. But biofuels have become increasingly controversial because those derived from oil crops such as rape and palm can result in greater carbon emissions than the diesel they replace, as well as higher food prices and deforestation.
Hedegaard told the Guardian: "We cannot morally afford to build a very big industry on something that is not good for the environment or for food prices. One of the biggest challenges of the 21st century is ensuring affordable food prices. We are not closing down the existing [biodiesel] industry. What they produce they can continue to produce."
Much greater incentives will now be given the so-called second and third-generation fuels, produced from agricultural or urban waste or by growing algae, with all existing support for food-based biofuels ending in 2020.
These technologies are at a much earlier stage of development, but Hedegaard said the changes would give the market a "very, very strong" signal. Damian Carrington
(c) 2012 Guardian Newspapers Limited.
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