Brussels, 22/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 21 January, the day before unveiling his “energy and climate” package of measures to combat global warming (EUROPE 9583), European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs leapt to the defence of his strategy to promote biofuels in the EU, a strategy that has received criticism even from within the Commission.
In parallel to proposals for the EU27 to share out the effort required for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% at least by 2020 (compared to the 1990 level) within the EU, the Commission must adopt a proposal for a directive to implement, at Community level, the target of a 20% share of the EU's energy mix (primary energy consumption) being assigned to renewable energies by 2020. To this end, the Commission is setting compulsory national targets for each member state to promote renewables in three sectors: - electricity generation, heating and cooling, and transport. For the last sector, a binding 10% share of the total amount of petrol and diesel consumed must be replaced, by 2020, by biofuels in each member state. The 27 member states should have transposed this legislation into their national bodies of law and handed in their implementation plans by 31 March 2010 at the latest.
In the specific case of biofuels, in addition to the 10% target, the Commission has introduced criteria of environmental viability into its legislative proposal. Apart from the fact that the biofuels included in the objectives should bring about minimum reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, their production should meet new requirements to ensure they are produced in an environmentally viable way. The production of biofuels should not be the result of raw materials grown on land that was hitherto used for carbon storage or for safeguarding biodiversity (forest, nature conservation areas, wetlands). Also, in 2012, the Commission will study the possibility of extending this system to other forms of bio-energy. Furthermore, although the Commission believes it is technically possible for the EU to meet its biofuel needs through its domestic production alone, it states that it is both likely and desirable that such needs should be met by a combination of domestic production and imports. When it comes to imports, the Commission suggests giving its endorsement to agreements with third countries to ensure that biofuels grown with raw materials in those countries respect the environmental criteria set for Community production. Finally, the Commission should no longer call on member states, as a previous project had stipulated, to ensure that 6.5% of their fossil fuel consumption for transport come from biofuels by 2012 with a view to reaching the compulsory market share of 10% set for 2020. This figure of 10% is to be compared to the non-binding objective of 5.75% by 2010 set out in the current directive on biofuels which, generally speaking, will not be respected.
Given the environmental and social cost of biofuel production, the relevance of the Commission's strategy is largely brought into question in past weeks by criticism voiced by NGOs, international organisations (notably the OECD) and scientific experts. Two caused quite a stir this week, including a working document drawn up by the Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) which estimates that the cost of developing biofuels in the EU will exceed the benefits of doing so. JRC scientific experts - whose analysis assesses whether Community biofuels strategy will allow the three underlying objectives of the 10% target to be attained, namely the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, energy supply security and job creation - believe that the 10% target will cost between €33 and 65 billion, with a probability margin of 80%.
A report with similar conclusions from the UK House of House forced Piebalgs to react on 21 January through a statement published in the press. The British report concluded that support for biofuels was premature with regard to the considerable environmental risks associated with current technologies. In his defence, the energy commissioner pointed out that there were currently only three ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport: - move from polluting forms of transport to those which were more energy efficient (rail, short sea shipping, etc.); - promoting vehicles which used less fuel by setting targets on CO2 emissions by kilometre; - promoting biofuels, the development of which led to significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in transport, compared with the alternative, oil. While waiting for other technologies, such as hydrogen, to become competitive, Piebalgs said, the only alternative to biofuels is oil, and he highlighted the widely known problems with this energy source: the high pollution levels from the extraction to the transport of oil resources, and the massive rise in petrol prices. (E.H.)