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EU set to scrap biofuels target amid fears of food crisis
Ian Traynor in Brussels The Guardian, Saturday April 19 2008 appeared
in the Guardian on Saturday April 19 2008 on p1 of the Top stories
section.
The European commission is backing away from its insistence on
imposing a compulsory 10% quota of biofuels in all petrol and diesel
by 2020, a central plank of its programme to lead the world in
combating climate change.
Amid a worsening global food crisis exacerbated, say experts and
critics, by the race to divert food or feed crops into biomass for the
manufacture of vehicle fuel, and inundated by a flood of expert advice
criticising the ****ft to renewable fuel, the commission appears to be
getting cold feet about its biofuels target.
Under the proposals, to be turned into law within a year, biofuels are
to supply a tenth of all road vehicle fuel by 2020 as part of the
drive to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by the same deadline.
The 10% target is "binding" under the proposed legislation. But
pressed by its scientific advisers, UN authorities, leaders in Europe,
non-government organisations and environmental lobbies, the commission
is engaged in a rethink.
"The target is now secondary," said a commission official, adding that
high standards of "sustainability" being drafted for biofuels sourcing
and manufacture would make it impossible for the target to be met.
Britain has set its own biofuels targets, which saw 2.5% mixed into
all petrol and diesel fuel sold on forecourts in the UK this week. The
government wants to increase that to 5% within two years, but has
admitted that the environmental concerns could force them to rethink.
Ruth Kelly, trans****t secretary, has ordered a review, which is due to
re****t next month.
A commission source indicated that the EU executive would not object
if European governments ordered a U-turn.
"This is all very sensitive and fast-moving," said a third commission
official. "There is now a lot of new evidence on biofuels and the
commission has become a prisoner of this process."
The target is being strongly criticised by the commission's own
scientific experts and environmental advisers to the EU.
"The policy may have negative impacts on soil, water, and
biodiversity," said Professor Laszlo Somlyody, who led a team of
climate scientists analysing the policy for the Copenhagen-based
European Environment Agency, which advises the EU. "This can lead to
serious problems," he told the Guardian.
His re****t, published last week, calls on Brussels to freeze its
biofuels policy because of the potential risks to the environment.
"The over-ambitious 10% biofuel target is an experiment whose
unintended effects are difficult to predict and difficult to control,"
the scientists found.
In March last year, European leaders sought to seize the global moral
high ground by backing the commission's climate change package aimed
at making Europe the world's first low-carbon economy. In January, the
commission fleshed out the details of the measures, based on a carbon
trading scheme which is to supply the bulk of the cuts in greenhouse
gases.
But since then there has been a torrent of expert re****ts citing
biofuels as part of the climate change problem.
This week, Jean Ziegler, the UN's rap****teur on the right to food,
dubbed biofuels "a crime against humanity" because they allegedly
divert food from the poor to provide fuel for the rich.
"The diversion of crops to fuel can raise food prices and reduce our
ability to alleviate hunger," warned a 2,500-page analysis of global
food trends from UN agricultural scientists.
While Germany recently announced a retreat from its biofuel policies,
Alistair Darling, the chancellor, asked the world's wealthiest
countries to *****s the impact of biofuel development on the food
crisis for a G7 summit this summer.
An ad hoc group of EU experts will meet next month to wrangle over the
sustainability criteria to be entered into the legislation. The
commission is proposing that the overall impact of biofuels - produced
from biomass from rapeseed, corn, sugar cane or palm oil - results in
carbon dioxide cuts of 35% compared to fossil fuel equivalents.
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