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EU: No “U-turn” on biofuels
The EU responds to Greenpeace's criticism of the EU's biofuels policy saying there will be no U-turn
di Staff
EU agriculture chief Mariann Fischer Boel has responded to criticism of the EU's biofuels policy (see EU: Commission ignores own doubts on biofuels) saying there will be no U-turn.
The commissioner made the comments on Friday, the same day a leaked commission working paper said the cost of the EU?s plans to use biofuels to reduce emissions ?will almost certainly outweigh the benefits?. Fischer Boel told a a conference of the national association of German food industries, ?Don?t expect a U-turn on overall biofuels policy any time soon.
?This target is modest compared to what is already happening in Brazil and the US. It?s also necessary if we?re serious about energy security and climate change. ?And it?s attainable,? she concluded.
The EU has pledged to make biofuels a 10 per cent part of overall transport fuel by 2020, a target agreed by national ministers last March. The leaked report says that ?uncertainty is too great to say whether the EU's 10 per cent biofuels target will save greenhouse gases or not?.
And it suggests that biomass resources should perhaps not be diverted into making biofuel for transport, but used where they are more cost-effective, for heat and electricity. ?Replacing stationary burners with ones using wood or energy crops saves more than twice as much oil as the same biomass resources made into biofuel, at lower cost and with existing technology,? says the paper, dated 19 December last year.
Greenpeace believes that the conclusions of the working paper should be taken seriously by the commission. ?Biofuels should be used where their impact is most effective and where they can lead to more savings,? said Greenpeace?s EU energy policy campaigner Frauke Thies.
?Bioenergy is more effectively used in electricity and heat generation right now so it should be used where it leads to the best GHG savings,? she added. The paper, Biofuels in the European context, also addresses the issues of security of supply and employment, saying that while biofuels benefit the security of supply of transport fuel, they have ?neutral or close to neutral? net effects on job gains.
A commission spokesman said that the document was internal and intended for preparatory work on the energy and climate change package only. ?It is an internal working paper and nothing more. It is one of the sources that will inform our decisions to be taken next week,? said the spokesman.
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