Biofuels Archives

The EU approach to biofuels over the last decade is a case study in how not to make public policy, writes Irish Senator Jennifer Murnane O’Connor.

Countries are free to manage their forests as they choose, but reducing them to a tool of light-fingered carbon accounting can leave world deprived of vital carbon sinks, writes Hannah Mowat.

Biofuels are being touted as a solution to the problem of aviation emissions. But previous experience shows us we must take care to ensure they are not actually worse for the environment than the kerosene they replace, writes Carlos Calvo Ambel.

The use of emotionally misleading terms needs to be avoided if we are to have efficient policies, writes Zoltán Szabó.

Edmonton has become the first city which turns all non-compostable and non-recyclable household waste into methanol, ethanol and green chemicals. Europe should take notice, writes Lambert van Nistelrooij.

The true negative impact of palm oil, the interests that the trade serves and the failure of policy to deal with deforestation and other consequences, write Jakub Kvapil, Stanislav Lhota and Zoltán Szabó

A response delivered by Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete in the European Parliament last week demonstrates just how dangerously out of touch with reality the executive is on a policy that impacts on the lives of hundreds of thousands of EU citizens, writes Dick Roche.

Will the report of the EU Court of Auditors (ECA) regarding the EU system for the certification of sustainable biofuels spark an outbreak of common sense within the Commission, asks Dick Roche.

The change of EU policy on biofuels will undermine Romania’s potential to become one of Europe’s most important sources of clean renewable fuel, writes Laurențiu Rebega.

Europe seeks to stop the increase in transport GHG emissions with the wrong policies, writes Zoltán Szabó.

Public policy should be built on firm foundations. Objective analysis, verifiable facts and solid science are good starting points, but that was absent in biofuels policy-making, writes Dick Roche.

Public policy should be based on verifiable facts, rational analysis and, where possible, on solid science, writes Dick Roche.

The Stone Age did not end because humans ran out of stones – it ended because we found better alternatives. The same must become of the Oil Age, if we are to fulfil our COP21 commitments, writes Robert Wright.

In its efforts to encourage displacement of fossil fuels by renewable energy, the EU intervened to promote bio-fuels, but ended up discriminating against production of a wider range of bio-based chemical feedstocks in Europe, writes Marco Mensink.

The biofuel lobby decries plans to scrap biofuel targets. Ending support for harmful and costly biofuels is the only right thing to do, writes Marc-Olivier Herman.

The European Commission's proposal to scrap the mandate for the use of biofuels and, in effect, to ‘kiss biofuels goodbye,’ is a catastrophic policy based largely on arguments that have no solid foundation, writes Dick Roche.

This integrated approach to decarbonisation of the EU transportation policy will only be successful if it places the right incentives for the production of second generation, advanced alternative fuels, writes Angel Alvarez Alberdi.

If Europe is serious about its climate commitments, and if Europe wants to reduce its dependence on imported oil, then we need to increase the amount of low-carbon biofuels in the energy mix, writes Peder Holk Nielsen.

The European Commission should make public a study on biofuels it commissioned itself, even if it doesn’t like its results, writes José Inácio Faria.

Despite the encouraging and historic climate agreement at COP 21 in Paris, politicians all over the world argue that quick climate action is too costly. But if they redid the calculation and included co-benefits they would take action now. And they should, argues Christian Friis Bach.

Biofuels present an opportunity to decarbonise the transport sector in the medium term. This should not be squandered because of misplaced fears over land use change, writes Elmar Baumann.

After the COP21 talks in Paris, many eyes are again focusing on the role that companies and financiers can play in reducing climate change, writes Anne van Schaik.

On 15 December, Bulgaria will mark the 20th anniversary since it made its EU membership application. On this occasion, Dick Roche recalls the country’s EU path and questions if the treatment it gets from the EU is fair.

Sufficient sustainable biomass can be produced within European borders to drive major bioeconomy development and all that is needed is recognition of this latent potential and enabling public policies, writes Zoltán Szabó.