Tag: biofuels

A critical biofuels vote in Strasbourg on Wednesday (11 September) is expected to be tight but Corinne Lepage, the French Liberal MEP with the lead on the dossier, is "cautiously confident" of securing an agreement over an issue that has threatened to fracture the European Parliament.

If biofuels received no EU policy support, the price of food stuffs such as vegetable oil would be 50% lower in Europe by 2020 than at present – and 15% lower elsewhere in the world – according to new research by the EU’s Joint Research Centre (JRC).

The International Institute of Sustainable Development's admission of an error in their recent study of public subsidies to biofuels is part of a systematic pattern of NGO bias, argues Rob Vierhout. It is time to look again at the social, security and environmental benefits of ethanol, he says.

Indonesian palm oil has been blamed for deforestation, transcontinental smog, greenhouse gas emissions, forced evictions, child labour and modern day slavery. But if the EU imposes punitive duties on it before 2014, it will be for tax reasons.

EU efforts to limit the use of crop-based biofuels, increasingly seen as doing the planet more harm than good, won parliamentary backing on Thursday (11 July) in what a top biodiesel company called "a very bad blow".

The European Commission, member states and industry will invest more than €22 billion over the next seven years in innovation. The investment will primarily go to special sectors via five public-private partnerships called Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs).

By effectively decreasing the ambition of its biofuels policy, as currently debated in the European Parliament and the Council, the EU walks away from concerns without solving them, writes Carlo Hamelinck.

The European Union should embrace new renewable solutions such as gas fermentation technologies to advance towards a low-carbon economy, argues Jennifer Holmgren.

The European Parliament wants to reinforce the principle of discrimination in the EU’s draft biofuels directive, setting Europe on a collision course with its obligations in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), writes Fredrik Erixon.

Land-use change arguments against biofuels are based on shifting sands, and neglect the massive contribution that fuel crops such as bioethanol make to Europe's economy, argue Eric Sievers and Rob Vierhout. 

Public support for biofuels in Europe in 2011 added up to €10 billion, a sum equal to the EU’s bailout of Cyprus, according to new research by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

Several European ministers are blocking the EU’s proposal to curb the use of conventional biofuels, while some dispute claims the demand for crop-based oils drives deforestation and food insecurity in other parts of the world.

Biofuels account for the largest source of new demand for agricultural production and have helped drive price volatility in grain crops like wheat and maize, the UN Food and Agricultural Organization says in a new report.

The European Commission’s proposal to amend the Renewable Energy Directive should be welcomed as a first step towards the elimination of the adverse impact of biofuels. But more incisive action is badly needed in the future, writes Enrico Partiti.

Europe risks losing out to the United States in the growing market for advanced biofuels without better regulation and clear policy signals, say leading members of the industry.

Representatives of Europe’s biofuels industry have threatened to sue the European Commission if it proceeds with plans to limit crop-based biofuels because of their indirect effect on greenhouse gas emissions.

A French plan to fight food price volatility took further shape yesterday (12 September) with a call to pause global development of biofuels, just a day after President François Hollande pushed for creation of strategic food stocks.

The growing row over biofuels is ready to flare up again with German researchers claiming to have found evidence that European-produced biodiesel does not meet the sustainability targets claimed by Brussels.

German researchers have unveiled evidence suggesting that EU claims, according to which locally-produced rapeseed biodiesel cut back at least 38% of greenhouse gases (GHG) compared with fossil fuels,  are unfounded.

The aviation industry has little choice but to turn to biofuels to help meet its commitments to reducing carbon emissions in the decades ahead, argues Alan H. Epstein, an engineer who is vice president for technology and environment at Pratt & Whitney.

Biofuels will be the biggest contributor to the EU’s target of providing 10% of transport fuel from renewable energy by 2020, but consumers at the petrol pump could be forgiven for feeling confused about their environmental benefits.

An extraordinary ‘orientation meeting’ between the European Union's 27 commissioners has instructed the EU executive's energy and climate departments to sit down and jointly draft a legal proposal addressing indirect land use changes (ILUC) caused by the biofuels industry.

Conventional biofuels like biodiesel increase carbon dioxide emissions and are too expensive to consider as a long-term alternative fuel, a draft EU report says.

The EU should bin incentives for road-transport biodiesel or provide equal ones for the production of biokerosene used in airplanes, a senior Airbus executive has told EurActiv.