The European Union should review any 2020 renewable-energy target for transport in 2015, French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said in comments that signal a possible compromise over biofuels.
Draft EU legislation would impose on each member country a 10 percent minimum target for the use of renewable energy in transport by 2020. Biofuels, which are made from crops such as rapeseed, wheat, corn and sugar, are the main renewable energy for transport and may be contributing to food shortages.
“We do have to have a review clause in 2015,'' Borloo told the European Parliament's energy committee today in Brussels. The French government, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, is seeking an accord on the draft legislation by the end of the year.
Food-price increases have revived concerns in Europe and elsewhere about biofuels, which threaten to displace food production and worsen hunger in poor countries. Wheat and corn prices will probably rise as much as 7 percent in the next 10 years as a result of greater U.S. and European production of alternative fuels, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said yesterday.
Biofuels, which include ethanol and biodiesel, offer the prospect of reducing reliance on fossil fuels blamed for climate change. They would also help the EU diversify its energy mix and ease dependency on oil and natural-gas producing countries.
Targets
Last week, the Parliament's environment committee recommended a 4 percent target for renewable energy in transport by 2015 and an 8 percent to 10 percent goal by 2020. The recommendation was part of a non-binding opinion for the Parliament's energy committee, which is due to give its verdict in September before a vote by the full assembly.
Borloo declined to comment on the targets proposed by the environment committee. At a press conference in the Parliament, he said other renewable sources of energy for transport such as electricity would play a role in meeting a 10 percent target.
“It's not a 10 percent biofuels target,'' Borloo said. “It's a target for renewable energy including biofuels.''
To boost biofuels trade without causing land damage in exporting nations such as Brazil, the 27-nation EU is drawing up environmental standards for production of the alternative fuels and urging a new generation to be developed from non-food sources.
Renewable Energy
The draft law goes beyond transport fuel by aiming to raise the overall share of energy from renewable sources including wind and solar power in the EU to an average 20 percent by 2020 from 8.5 percent. The 20 percent average goal would also be achieved through varying binding overall renewable-energy targets on individual member states. The targets are as a percentage of energy consumption.
The legislation needs the support of the 785-seat Parliament and national governments. The European Commission, the EU's regulatory arm, proposed the legislation in January as part of a package that also includes proposals to tighten carbon-dioxide caps on power plants and factories in the bloc's emissions-trading system and to promote the capture and underground storage of CO2, the main greenhouse gas.
The commission has defended its proposal to require biofuels for transport, saying food prices have risen because of stronger demand in Asia, bad weather that hurt crops and export curbs in Russia and Ukraine.
