Brussels, 17/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - If biofuels, the production of which is encouraged by the EU climate policy, do more harm than good by competing with food production and not doing enough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a shift of focus is the very least that can be done, and this is what the European Commission has done, Connie Hedegaard, the European Climate Action Commissioner, stressed on Wednesday 17 October. Together with her colleague for Energy matters, Günther Oettinger, she was presenting the press with the new rules tightening up the sustainability of biofuels use within the EU (see previous article).
“For biofuels to help us combat climate change, we must use truly sustainable biofuels. We must invest in biofuels that achieve real emission cuts and do not compete with food. We are of course not closing down first-generation biofuels, but we are sending a clear signal that future increases in biofuels must come from advanced biofuels. Everything else will be unsustainable. We say, improve your biofuels, move to the production of second and third generation biofuels”, she said.
In response to those who describe this proposal as “a bolt out of the blue”, the Commissioner pointed out that in the debate to prepare for the introduction of sustainability criteria in biofuels into EU legislation (both the “Renewable Energies” directive of 2009 and the “Fuel Quality” directive), she as minister had argued for the indirect land-use change (the ILUC factor) to be taken into account in the assessment of biofuel performance. “We should have analysed the ILUC factor. Today, we can say: yes, ILUC is a reality, certain biofuels are worse than the fuels they replace. Today, therefore, the Commission is proposing to introduce this factor with a method, and with the aim of investing in second-generation fuels”, said the Commissioner. At the same time, Hedegaard took pains to reassure producers, stressing the progressive nature of the reform, which will leave first-generation biofuel producers enough time to adapt to the new status quo. “We are not going to close businesses down overnight. As of 2020, there will be no more aid to first-generation biofuels. The challenge is to have enough food to feed the world at affordable prices”, she added. She argues that the game is worth the candle as last summer, the World Bank sounded the alarm. “Food prices exploded, also in Western Europe. It is not just a question of replacing fossil fuels”.
Environmentalists disappointed. The Greens/EFA at the European Parliament welcome the fact that the Commission has finally taken an initiative to take account of the ILUC factor, but are disappointed that very few concrete measures have been put forward to tackle excessive greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels. “It is true that the Commission is proposing to bring in a limit of 5% on the first generation of agro-fuels, but it is declining to propose specific measures appropriately to take account, in European legislation on renewable energies, of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the indirect land use change. If the indirect land use change was taken into account, the carbon footprint of certain agro-fuels would be so high that they would not be able to be considered as such”, observed MEP Yannik Jadot (France).
The NGO Friends of the Earth Europe agrees: due to a lack of measures on the carbon footprint, biofuels will continue to contribute to deforestation and climate change. In addition, the 5% limit for first-generation biofuels is still above current consumption levels and will therefore not prevent biofuels from competing with crops or bringing pressure to bear on food prices, the NGO stresses. (AN/transl.fl)