Once seen as a useful tool in the struggle against climate change, biofuels made from crops have turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. Not only do they risk increasing rather than reducing greenhouse gas emissions they also drive up food prices and contribute to deforestation.

But decision makers now have a unique opportunity to get things right.

Even the European Union (EU) – which introduced a target that would have led to 10% of petrol and diesel fuels being replaced by biofuels by 2020 – has slowly started to realise the serious problems caused by biofuels. Since a proposal to reform EU biofuel policy was published in September last year, Parliament and Council have separately discussed their reaction to it.

The Parliament’s Environment Committee has supported some positive measures:

• A cap on the use of crops for biofuels at 5.5% of fuel use
• The introduction of so called indirect land use change (ILUC) factors that account for the climate impacts of deforestation triggered by the expansion of biofuels

Other Committees in the Parliament (e.g. the one for Industry, Research and Energy) have taken less helpful positions, opposing ILUC factors and watering down the cap on food for fuel.

Now things are coming to a crunch as  the full plenary of the Parliament is making a decision on the proposals that are on the table on September 11.  Читати далі Biofuels – decision time for Europe →