European energy ministers have backed away from the EU's
biofuels for transport target, admitting a gross confusion
on their part in which they said they had been misreading
policy documents since the target was initially proposed eighteen
months ago.
The ministers, meeting in Paris for informal discussions,
said that upon closer inspection, EU proposals that aim for
a target of 10 percent of fuels for cars and lorries coming
from biofuels by 2020, in fact only demand that 10 percent
of fuels come from renewable sources - which may or may not
be the controversial energy source.
"The member states realised that the commission's plan specifies
that 10 percent of transport needs must come from renewable
energy - not 10 percent from biofuels - " French energy and
environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo told reporters at the
conclusion of the meeting.
Until now, it was believed that EU leaders last spring agreed
that the EU should increase the use of biofuels in transport
fuel to 10 percent by 2020 - up from a planned 5.75 percent
target to be achieved by 2010.
Jochen Homann, a state secretary in the German Ministry of
Economics and Technology said he and his colleagues had "discovered"
that the documents "do not speak of biofuels, but renewables"
- according to AFP. "We have to decide if the quota can be
kept" - Mr Homann said. "It might be changed."
The retreat comes after months of pressure on the EU and
US from environmental groups, development NGOs and international
institutions - such as the World Bank and the United Nations
- to adjust or abandon their biofuels policies.
Until a year ago, the alternative fuel source had widely
been seen as a green alternative to petrol that also allowed
European and developing world farmers to benefit from new
markets for their crops. At the international level however,
there is now broad consensus that production of many biofuels
releases as many greenhouse gases as the use of fossil fuels
and that they have contributed to the global food crisis as
farmers switch to growing crops for fuel instead of food.
The coup de grace for EU biofuels policy seems to
have come when a recent confidential internal World Bank report
- leaked to the UK's Guardian newspaper - concluded
that biofuels were responsible for 75 percent of the skyrocketing
rise in food prices.
Mr Borloo said that the policy could instead be interpreted
to mean the deployment of hydrogen fuel cells or electric
cars using electricity from alternative sources.
Nonetheless, despite the rereading, there has been no official
policy change proposed.
Meanwhile, the ministers are mulling over a proposal for
a biofuels accord with Brazil. Green MEP Claude Turmes, the
deputy responsible for shepherding renewable energy legislation
through the European Parliament, has suggested that the EU
reach a bilateral agreement with the South American country,
the biggest producer of bioethanol in the world.
"My analysis shows the only country where we can sustainably
import substantial quantities of agri-fuels to the EU at the
moment is Brazil" - Mr Turmes said following the meeting,
according to Reuters.
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