Campaigners support EU biofuel cutbacks

Environmental campaigners have welcomed a decision by the European Parliament to scale back plans to increase the use of first generation biofuels but claim the decision does not go far enough and targets should be scrapped altogether.

In a vote on Thursday, members of the European Parliament's Industry committee voted to amend an earlier commitment from the European Commission that 10 per cent of all road transport fuels should come from renewable sources by 2020.

Following pressure from environmental groups, the parliament voted for a plan endorsing that 40 per cent of the 10 per cent EC renewable fuel plan should come from alternatives to so-called first generation biofuels.

“It’s great news that Euro MPs are waking up to the fact that biofuels are doing more harm than good, but they must go further and scrap these targets altogether," said Friends of the Earth biofuels campaigner Kenneth Richter. Groups such as Friends of the Earth claim that first generation biofuels are damaging to the environment, leading to changes in land-use and destruction of important habitats and claim that it's "impossible to make the quantity of biofuel needed to meet the target without chopping down more forests".

The EC's commitment that 10 per cent of all road transport fuels should come from renewables first emerged in January this year, part of a wider plan announced in 2007, to reduce European Union green hours gas emissions to 20 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020.

The European Parliament committee claimed that alternatives to first generation biofuels could include electricity and hydrogen produced from renewable sources as well as so-called second generation biofuels made from waste plant material, "ligno-cellulosic biomass", or vat-grown algae.

But despite the inclusion of targets to promote the use of alternatives to first generation biofuels, green groups claim that the Europe has not gone far enough and should explore other options to tackle the contribution road transport makes to climate change.

"To reduce our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels, Euro MPs must back real transport solutions, such as making car companies double the fuel efficiency of new vehicles by 2020," said FOE's Richter. He added that the UK should also look at its own approach to biofuels and the environmental impact it could have long term. “The UK government must now reconsider its own biofuels policy, which is driving up food prices and leading to rainforest destruction in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.”

In July this year, the UK government-backed Renewable Fuel Agency (RFA) conducted an investigation into the indirect effects of biofuel use, which claimed that use of biofuels should be slowed until controls can be put in place to limit the impact on land-use and increasing food prices. Led by the RFA's chairman, professor Ed Gallagher, the so-called Gallagher Review, also concluded that if policies on biofuels were continued, they could result in a reduction in biodiversity and an even an overall increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

"Our review makes it clear that the risks of negative impacts from biofuels are real and significant, but it also lays out a path for a truly sustainable biofuels industry in the future. The RFA will move on from this review to build a new consensus on the use of biofuels, and lead the UK industry into a sustainable future," professor Gallagher said in a statement at the time.

The RFA was contacted for a comment on the European Parliament ruling, but claimed a spokesperson said that the organisation doesn't "have a position on policy matters such as this". However, the spokesperson added that RFA has been "actively engaging with both elected and unelected officials in Europe to explain the conclusions of the Gallagher review".