XML FeedsEuropeans Reconsider Biofuel Goal
By damageva on Jul 8, 2008 | In Energy, Climate Change GHG Carbon CO2, U.S., U.K., Europe, Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Newspaper/Mag/TV/Media Story, Regulatory Analysis, Costs and Benefits | 1 feedback »
European officials proposed scaling back drastically on their goal of increasing Europe’s use of biofuels, a major about-face on a central environmental and energy issue.
Until recently, European governments had sought to lead the rest of the world in the use of biofuels, aiming to derive 10 percent of Europe’s transportation fuels from biofuels by 2020. But the allure has dimmed amid growing evidence that the kind of goals proposed by the European Union are contributing to deforestation, which speeds climate change, and helping force up food prices.
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In the United States, one quarter of the corn crop goes to biofuels. An energy bill passed last year requires that 36 billion gallons of biofuels be produced annually by 2022, but criticism of the policy is growing, including calls to end tax breaks for corn-based ethanol.
A major reason is that over the last 18 months, studies have shown that the current generation of biofuels — reliant on food crops like canola, corn and soybeans — helps drive up food prices by using agricultural land, as well as aggravating deforestation, and may be worse for the climate than conventional oil once the cost of production and transport are taken into account.
Most of the world’s biofuel is extracted from corn in the United States, sugar in Brazil, and both grain and oil-seed crops in Europe.
Europe’s reversal on biofuels had gained significant momentum in recent days. Over the weekend....
Britain, one of the biggest proponents of increased biofuel use, signaled a new course Monday. Ruth Kelly, the British transport minister, said the introduction of biofuels should be slowed down, citing a newly released report warning that current goals for biofuel production could cause a global rise in greenhouse gas emissions and an increase in poverty in the poorest countries.
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The Environment Committee of the European Parliament voted Monday to approve the measure and send it to the full Parliament. Members of each major political bloc on the committee called for a much lower target — 4 percent — and said the measures should be reviewed in 2015.
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Under the alternative proposals that the committee voted on, 20 percent of renewable transport fuels would have to come from feed stocks, like algae, that do not compete with food for cropland.
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New Energy Finance, a research group in London, said in May that prices had risen 8 percent for grains and 17 percent for oils as a result of biofuels policies. It found effects on the price of sugars had been negligible.
By James Kanter
FOR FULL STORY GO TO:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/business/worldbusiness/08fuel.html?em&ex=1215662400&en=305ffd12e0b0fab1&ei=5087%0A
The New York Times www.NYTimes.com
Published: July 8, 2008
