My blog of 9th May 2007 raised very serious concerns about biofuels - those concerns remain but there is a small light in the EU - they are looking at biofuel rules in terms of sustainability.
The European Commission plans new measures to ensure increased use of biofuels reduces greenhouse gas emissions - in some cases it is leading to massive increases in emissions. Paul Hodson, a Commission official involved in turning those targets into law, said: "We want to define a minimum sustainability standard. We want to say if you don't meet the standards, you're not eligible for state aid and it doesn't count for the biofuel requirements."
He listed three criteria that would likely be included in the legislation when determining whether biofuels were "sustainable". First, they must have a minimum level of greenhouse gas savings compared with fossil fuels, from production to actual use. Second, land used to produce biofuels must not be areas such as wetlands that would have normally stored carbon in a natural way if it were not being used to grow crops. Draining a swamp, for example, to create land to grow biofuel crops would be discouraged. Third, the land used should not be home to a variety of plants or animals, what Hodson called a "high biodiversity quota", which would be displaced or destroyed in order to make room for crop growing.
The legislation will also seek to promote "second generation" biofuels such as wood and straw by giving them more weight when determining whether the EU targets have been met. The legislative proposal is due in November. I can see many gaps in this but it is a step forward.
Action cannot come too soon - it has been reported that Indonesia’s biofuel plan, for example, will increase palm oil production 43-fold, threatening the continued existence of the country’s remaining forests and peatland and emitting some 50 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere – equivalent to six year’s worth of emissions caused globally by the burning of fossil fuels.
PS Was sent this cartoon re biofuels - see here.
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Trouble is, once they’ve got the techno-fix between their teeth, they’re off with a vengeance no matter how illusory the environmental benefits - anything’s better than facing reality - and the money helps too.
Not so good news:
The escalating share of the U.S. grain harvest going to ethanol distilleries is driving up food prices worldwide. Investment in fuel ethanol distilleries has soared since gasoline prices jumped at the end of 2005. Once completed, distilleries now under construction could double U.S. ethanol output, turning nearly 30 percent of next year’s U.S. grain harvest into fuel for automobiles. This unprecedented diversion of the world’s leading grain crop to the production of fuel will affect food prices everywhere, risking political instability.
To read more see http://www.earthpolicy.org/Transcripts/SenateEPW07.htm.
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