EU Working on Sustainability Criteria for Biofuels
Seeking to strike a balance between reducing Co2 emissions with the use of biofuels and precluding adverse impacts such as deforestation, the EU is hard at work on sustainability criteria for the production of biofuels, Slovenian Environment Minister Janez Podobnik said on Saturday.
A special ad hoc group of the Committee of Permanent Representatives at the EU (Coreper) is expected to draft the criteria by its 7 May meeting. These criteria must be "universal, clear and provable," Podobnik said after an informal meeting with his counterparts at Brdo pri Kranju.
Efforts to frame sustainability criteria were stepped up after the initial excitement of using biofuels to cut emissions of greenhouse gases was dampened by mounting scientific evidence that certain types of biofuels may actually produce more greenhouse gases than "dirty" fuels.
Moreover, as the popularity of biofuels grows, land previously used for food production is being converted to energy crops and forests are being cut down to expand agricultural production, further contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and hurting biodiversity along the way.
The details about the sustainability criteria are thin on the ground, but Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the European Commission's proposed target for savings of CO2 emissions compared to fossil fuels was 35%. Social criteria would also be included, as well as the protection of biodiversity with the stipulation that biofuel may not come from land rich in biodiversity.
According to Dimas, the work of the ad hoc group is very important. "I'm sure they will do their best to achieve the best sustainability criteria in the world, taking into account the social and environmental impacts, and maximising the benefits from the use of biofuels."
Also as part of the efforts to make biofuels truly sustainable, the Commission will shortly present two communications dealing with the EU's approach to reducing emissions and biodiversity loss from deforestation in developing countries, and a report on the economics of biodiversity loss.
One of the key issues here is the funding of programmes to prevent deforestation. Dimas said that various approaches were being discussed, including credits for avoiding deforestation, and using 20% of the estimated EUR 30-50bn that member states will get from auctioning CO2 emission permits for "good causes".
German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel told reporters that Germany alone stood to make EUR 5-10bn beyond 2013 when 100% of all emission permits will be auctioned off (10% are currently being auctioned, the rest given away for free).
"These funds should be used to further national and international climate change goals," he said, adding that the commission and some member states welcomed the proposal.
"At the end of the day, it is a question of whether we are willing to offer financial assistance to countries where these areas would be protected," Gabriel said, pointing out that developed countries had previously made commitments to help preserve the rain forests, but they failed to honour them.
Sustainability criteria will also be crucial in the EU's ambitious goal of raising the share of biofuels in transport to 10% by 2020, which has come under fire from NGOs. Even the European Environment Agency has proposed that the target be suspended until further research is done.
Yet Dimas believes the goal can still be achieved, provided that the biofuels are sustainable and that 2nd generation biofuels (produced from cellulose rather than from sugar as current biofuels) are promoted. There are indications that this goal could be achieved, he said.
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