Brussels, 09/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - European agricultural organisations Copa-Cogeca expressed major concerns in a press release published on Wednesday 8 February about new EU reports evaluating the impact that land use change relating to biofuel demand by 2020 will have on greenhouse gas emissions. Copa-Cogeca warned these data are unreliable.
The reports were commissioned from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) by the European Commission. In a letter sent to EU Commissioners Connie Hedegaard, Günther Oettinger and Dacian Cioloº, Copa-Cogeca Secretary General Pekka Pesonen warned that the IFPRI model used in the study and the JRC method rely on a great deal of uncertainties and on inaccurate data. Copa-Cogeca argues that taking the JRC's proposed values into account in an EC legislative proposal would wipe out the investments and jobs created in rural areas in the EU through the development of the biofuel sector over the last 20 years and would not enable undesirable land use change in non-EU countries to be reduced. Pesonen insisted that biofuels offer many advantages in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, providing employment in rural areas of the EU. They can also be produced in the EU in a sustainable way, without any need for indirect land-use changes. (LC/transl.rt)