Brussels, 31/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 30 March, COPA (Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations) and COGECA (General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives) welcomed a new EU study which highlights the benefits of biofuels in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The report, “Global Trade and Environmental Impact of the EU Biofuels Mandate”, by the International Food Research Policy Institute (IFPRI), was commissioned by the EU Commission.
Speaking in Brussels, COPA-COGECA Secretary General Pekka Pesonen said “The study confirms the positive emission reduction effects of biofuels. Not only do they have a positive impact on greenhouse gas emissions, they also reduce our oil dependency and boost employment in rural areas”.
The most widely used biofuels include biodiesel derived from oilseeds and bioethanol from cereals or sugarbeet and blended with petrol.
The study reveals that an increase in demand for the raw materials used to produce biofuels in the EU from now until 2020 will only cause a slight rise, of between 0.07% to 0.08%, in the use of arable land. “The EU's policy to promote the use of biofuels will consequently have little effect on land use on an international scale,” the agricultural organisations report. The impact could be accentuated if trade in biofuels were liberalised further. “That is why imports to the EU must be governed by specific rules,” COPA-COGECA said. The organisations acknowledged that there were a great number of uncertainties with regard to the findings because of gaps in available data and the lack of complete empirical validation. “For example, it is completely unrealistic to say that EU yields will drop by as much as 10% on average from 2007 to 2020, as claimed in the study,” Pesonen said. (L.C. / transl. rt)