Biofuel debate heats up ahead of committee votes

Energy committee to vote on proposal to limit the type of biofuel that can be used to meet EU renewable energy target.

MEPs on the European Parliament’s energy committee are to vote today (20 June) on whether to accept or reject the European Commission’s proposal to limit the type of biofuel that can be used to meet the European Union’s targets for renewable energy.

The EU has a target that 10% of transport fuel should come from renewable sources. Faced with criticisms that the target was encouraging the production of biofuel made from food crops, raising food prices and intensifying agriculture, the Commission proposed last year that the renewable-energy legislation should be revised, so that biofuel derived from food crops or indirectly causing a change of land-use could count for at most half of the 10%.

The remainder would come from ‘second-generation’ biofuel that is more environmentally friendly.

However, biofuel producers then complained that, having been encouraged by the initial law to make investments, they would suffer from a reversal of policy.

The Parliament’s environment committee is to vote on its position on 10 July. Today, the energy committee has a chance to get its views in earlier.

Compromises

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, a Spanish centre-right MEP who is drafting the energy committee’s position, has proposed amendments that would scrap the half-of-10% limit and would instead set a 2% minimum for second-generation biofuel. The Irish government, which has been chairing discussions in the Council, has proposed a similar compromise. At the environment committee Corinne LePage, a French Liberal MEP, has put forward a tougher demand. She wants to make accounting for land-use change compulsory and to strengthen safeguards against indirect land-use change.

Some biofuel producers are arguing that science on the climate impacts of ILUC is inconclusive, and they question the evidence that biofuel is contributing to the volatility of food prices. They say imposing a production cap now would hurt an environmentally friendly business on the basis of incorrect or uncertain science.

On Tuesday (18 June), Copa-Cogeca, a lobby group that campaigns for farmers, released a report jointly with biofuel companies UFOP and VDB, arguing that high and volatile food prices should be blamed on oil prices, exchange rates, weather extremes and ad-hoc trade policy restrictions.

A separate report released yesterday (19 June) by economists at the World Bank found that high oil prices are the most important driver of the increase in global food prices, responsible for almost two-thirds of the food prices changes between 2005 and 2012.

The full Parliament is scheduled to vote on the legislation in September.