Biofuels Archives
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Flying on palm oil: Why ICAO’s ‘green fuel’ plan spells climate disaster
Plans to rapidly scale up the use of biofuels in air transport inevitably mean increasing reliance on Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO), most of which currently contain palm oil, the worst polluting biofuel, warns Almuth Ernsting.
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What the EU risks by opening up its market to Brazilian sugar cane ethanol
Free and fair trade that helps boost economic growth and create jobs is a concept most people support. But trade policy is about more than just open markets; it should also support – rather than work against – a government’s overall objectives, writes Emmanuel Desplechin.
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Wrong assumptions could lead to phase-out of conventional biofuels
The European Commission cannot be trusted in its call to invest in advanced biofuels as experience with first generation biofuels set a negative precedent, writes Elmar Baumann.
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Drivers are the top consumers of palm oil in Europe
As millions of European hit the roads this month for a well-earned summer break, most won’t know what they’re driving on, writes Laura Buffet.
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Biomass and biofuels in the EU: Emotion-based policymaking?
The European Commission’s tinkering on biomass policy effectively promotes oil over economically viable and sustainable biofuels, writes Francis X. Johnson.
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Short-term views on forest climate benefits is a mistake
The Commission’s land-use proposal risks being a step backwards in transitioning to a fossil fuel-free economy. Mårten Larsson explains the alternatives.
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Commission is not the only culprit in the biofuel shambles
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.
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Magic tricks in the forest: When member states make their emissions vanish
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.
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Aviation biofuels: Won’t get fooled again
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.
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Loaded terms in the bioeconomy
The use of emotionally misleading terms needs to be avoided if we are to have efficient policies, writes Zoltán Szabó.
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A Canadian circular economy reality
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.
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The real impact of palm oil and failed policies
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
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Commission ‘dangerously’ out of touch with reality on biofuels
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.
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Auditors’ report on biofuels calls for return to common sense
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.
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Commission proposals on biofuels will damage Romania’s interests
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.
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EU’s fanciful transport decarbonisation strategy
Europe seeks to stop the increase in transport GHG emissions with the wrong policies, writes Zoltán Szabó.
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Europe’s broken biofuels policy
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.
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Time for a balanced debate on biofuels
Public policy should be based on verifiable facts, rational analysis and, where possible, on solid science, writes Dick Roche.
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Biofuels are vital to decarbonising the EU’s road transport
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.
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Europe scores own-goal on bio-based chemistry
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.
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Scrapping EU biofuels targets is the right thing to do
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.
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Now is not the time to kiss the biofuels goodbye
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.
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Less ‘fatbergs’, more alternative fuels
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.
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EU’s 2030 climate and energy objectives will be missed without biofuels
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.