Leigh Phillips

The Environment Committee of the European Parliament voted on Monday night to call on the European Union to cut its biofuels targets.

BRUSSELS, Belgium; July 10, 2008.- In a unanimous 36-0 vote, with eight abstentions, the euro-deputies recommended that the EU aim to make between eight and ten percent of energy for transport come from renewable sources by 2020, with an interim target of four percent by 2015.

Of this latter target, at least 20 percent must come from electric cars or the use of hydrogen fuel, or alternately biogas or second-generation biofuels made from algae or agricultural waste.

In plans approved by energy ministers last March, the EU was to aim to achieve 10 percent renewable fuels for transport by 2020. The European Commission unveiled a legislative package in January of this year that translated these plans into legislative proposals that included a directive on the use of renewable energy with is currently under consideration by parliamentary committees.

The commission yesterday was quick to underline that the vote was “not the official opinion of the European Parliament.”

Commission energy spokesperson Ferran Tarradellas told journalists that the environment committee “is just one of the parliament’s committees giving an opinion on this”.

However, the main committee working on the directive, the energy and industry committee, is expected to take its lead from the environment committee’s amendments.

The emphasis on electric cars and hydrogen fuel echoes comments by energy ministers meeting over the weekend, who said that earlier reading of proposals had confused a 10 percent renewable fuels target with a 10 percent biofuels target, when in fact renewable energy for transport fuels can come from other sources. Here, ministers too emphasised electric vehicles and the use of hydrogen.

Environmental campaigners welcomed the revision of the target, but again insisted that all targets must be dropped.

Adrian Bebb, a campaigner with Friends of the Earth Europe said: “The political tide in Europe is now turning against biofuels. This vote gives a clear political signal that an expansion of biofuels is unacceptable.”

Originally viewed by both European leaders and environmentalists alike as an alternative to fossil fuels, biofuels have in the last year become something of an eco-villain, with countless reports showing how production of the fuel source in fact can result in greater greenhouse gas emissions and is a key cause of skyrocketing food prices.

(EU Observer)

 

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