Brussels, 22/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - The EU27 Energy Council is divided over draft legislation to tackle the impact of climate change and how it indirectly alters the use of land (ILUC) and the impact of biofuel production on carbon emissions.
An initial policy debate on the very complicated draft legislation unveiled by the European Commission in October 2012 to increase the rules on greenhouse gas emission from biofuel farming and cap the first generation farm emissions rules demonstrated the wide differences in opinion among the member states, whose energy ministers met in Brussels on Friday 22 February for an Energy Council.
The Energy Council chair, Irish energy minister Pat Rabbitte, said after the meeting: “There was a broad spectrum of views and positions articulated during the debate which addressed issues pertaining to enterprise, energy and climate change policy. However, there was broad consensus among ministers that the possible negative impacts of indirect land-use change need to be tackled. The discussion underlines the complexity of the proposal but also showed that that there is a shared view on the need to adequately address environmental concerns.”
The draft ILUC directive will amend the EU Renewables Directive 2009/28/EC and Fuel Quality Directive 1998/70/EC to ensure the sustainability of biofuel (see EUROPE 10712). Both directives cover the promotion and use of biofuels in the EU, setting a 10% target for the proportion of biofuel among total fuel use in transport for 2020, and a 6% reduction in carbon emissions from fuel used in transport by 2020.
The energy ministers were asked two questions by the Irish Presidency, whether the draft directive suitably meets the objective of reducing the carbon footprint of ILUC and encourages a shift to second generation biofuel, and also whether it will help meet the EU's energy and climate targets.
In this first exchange of views among politicians, Denmark suggested amendments to encourage the development of advanced biofuels, an idea backed by France, Latvia and the United Kingdom. Several delegations stressed the importance of avoiding discrimination against EU biofuel producers (versus producers elsewhere in the world) and taking note of local circumstances. This was pointed out by the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria. The cap of 5% on the share of first generation biofuels in total fuel consumption for transport raised a number of concerns; several member states said a distinction has to be made between biodiesel and bioethanol, and between biofuel that has a hefty impact from low-impact biofuel, as pointed out by the United Kingdom and Sweden. A number of member states, Hungary and Slovakia for instance, said that restricting investment in first generation biofuel could have a negative impact on the development of second generation biofuel too.
“Energy ministers highlighted today the issues that need to be resolved and our deliberations will act as a guide during future discussions on the proposed directive”, said Rabbitte, promising a progress report on ILUC for June. Meanwhile, the same questions will be set before the EU27 environment ministers on 21 March. (EH/transl.fl)