Brussels, 02/02/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission's draft legislation to improve the quality of petrol and diesel to reduce their damaging impact on human health and the environment (see EUROPE 9356) has been greeted with mixed, generally cautious, reactions. As far as the Greens/EFA group at the European Parliament is concerned, the directive fails to tackle the root of the problem - the use of fuel by cars. At the other end of the scale, those happy with the plan to allow ten percent ethanol to be added to petrol believe that this does not go far enough if efforts are not boosted to encourage the use of biofuels. Environmental NGOs are partly satisfied. They regret that under pressure from German industry, the European Commission decided to postpone the unveiling of vital additional measures to cut CO2 emissions from private cars.
French Green MEP Marie Anne Isler Beguin commented that the illusion was being fuelled that driving an ethanol-powered car would of itself reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She explained that it is not enough to simply introduce regulations concerning the quality of fuel and replace petrol with ethanol to deal with climate change and tackle greenhouse gas emissions, adding that the European Commission's policy was voluntarist in words but weak in scope, not challenging the habit of using road transport. Alongside the fact that the Commission is, in her view, too open to the arguments of European car manufacturers, Isler Beguin is also unhappy that focussing on the growing of biofuels can challenge the notion of food security. She explains that recent experience in Mexico showed that the production of biofuels had massively increased the price of maize, thereby leading to a hike in the price of tortilla, the staple Mexican food, to a level the poorest people cannot afford.
Neil Parish, British Tory MEP, rapporteur on biofuels at the European Parliament, welcomes the fact the revised draft directive aims to promote environmentally-friendly fuel and biofuel but feels this only solves half the problem if the car and oil industries do not follow suit. He is therefore calling on car manufacturers and the oil industry to stop dragging their feet and accept biofuel as an alternative source of energy. He is critical of the British government for not providing the economic incentives for biofuel that would help the biofuel industry to develop in the UK.
Parrish commented: 'Creating a new blend of petrol that is ten percent ethanol is a good start, but it only solves half the problem. We also need manufacturers to produce biofuel-friendly cars. At present, many manufacturers do not offer warranties for cars when drivers use such high levels of ethanol in the fuel mix.' 'We still need more action from the British government if we are to grow more of our biofuels at home. We must stop importing biofuels from abroad where vast areas of forest are being destroyed to make way for the crops. The incentives to go into biofuels production are not sufficient in the UK for many farmers to take the risk, and without a homegrown industry, the Commission's efforts could end up causing more harm to the environment than good.'
Environmental NGOs comment that 'Europe has taken one step forward and one step back in the fight against global climate change'. In a joint press release, the three NGOs, BirdLife International, the European Environment Bureau (EEB) and Transport and Environment (T&E),'welcomed EU plans to introduce carbon reduction targets for transport fuels but slammed the failure to announce a legally-binding target for car fuel-efficiency following high-level intervention by the German car industry' (at federal government level, see EUROPE 9254). 'What we are seeing is mindless scaremongering from the German car industry,' said Jos Dings, Director of T&E: 'They are saying that makers of larger cars will have to close and thousands of jobs will be lost - it's absurd. The EU approach has always been that emissions should be cut across the whole fleet in order to reach an average target. The problem has been that most carmakers haven't cut emissions fast enough, and that's why regulation is now urgently needed.' The European Commission's draft directive, initially due to be unveiled on 24 January, has now been re-scheduled by Jose Manuel Barroso for 7 February 2007, announced Commission spokesperson Johannes Laitenberger last week. (an)