UK parliamentary committee calls for biofuel moratorium

Reuters 20 Jan 08;

LONDON (Reuters) - Most biofuels harm rather than help the environment and the British government should call a moratorium on increasing their use, a parliamentary committee said on Monday.

"Biofuels can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from road transport -- but at present most biofuels have a detrimental impact on the environment overall," Tim Yeo, chairman of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) said.

Biofuels can be substituted for fossil fuels and are seen by advocates as a way of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases believed to contribute to global warming. Grains, vegetable oils and sugar are among the industry's current feedstocks.

Britain has ordered transport fuel suppliers to supply five percent of their UK road fuel from renewable fuels by 2010.

The Royal Society, the national academy of science, issued a report last week saying the government directive would do little to combat climate change because it lacked targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"There are many different types of biofuels and it's key that the ones we use provide the best greenhouse gas savings and are produced in ways that are good for people and the environment," Dianna Bowles of the Royal Society's biofuels working group said in response to the EAC report.

The EAC report said a large biofuel industry based on current technology is likely to increase food prices and could damage food security in developing countries.

Research is under way to develop so-called second generation biofuels which would use waste products rather than food commodities. The committee noted that these technologies are some years away.

Britain's National Farmers Union rejected the conclusions.

"Biofuels represent the only renewable alternative for replacing fossil fuel in transport and a way of tackling one quarter of UK carbon emissions which transport is responsible for," NFU president Peter Kendall said in a statement.

"UK biodiesel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by 53 percent and UK wheat bioethanol by 64 percent compared with their fossil fuel equivalents.

"Those savings can and should be improved. But for the committee to conclude that, because the savings are small, they are not worth having at all, is illogical and ill-informed," Kendall added.

(Reporting by Nigel Hunt; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Call to abandon biofuels targets
Roger Harrabin, BBC News 21 Jan 08;

The EU should abandon its biofuels targets because they are damaging the environment, a committee of MPs says.

The Environmental Audit Committee says biofuels are ineffective at cutting greenhouse gases and can be expensive.

It also says problematic emissions from cars can be cut more cheaply and with lower environmental risk.

The report comes in the week the EU launches a huge, over-arching climate change strategy which includes rules aimed at reducing damage from biofuels.

In a draft, the EU admits that the current target of 5.75% biofuels on the roads by 2010 is unlikely to be achieved. But it maintains its target of 10% road biofuel by 2020.

It states that in future biofuels should not be grown on forest land, wetland - including peat - or permanent grassland, a move that will please critics.

The EU will also stipulate that biofuels should achieve a minimum level of greenhouse gas savings.

But these figures have been contested, and it looks as though the calculation will exclude the carbon released by disturbing soil when the biofuels are planted. That would prove very controversial.

It is also unclear how the EU will ensure that its biofuels production on agricultural land does not push up food prices or displace food production, forcing local communities or agri-businesses into felling virgin forest to grow crops.

The committee of MPs says the targets are putting up food prices and threatening food supplies for the poor.

The EU and the UK government should concentrate on the use of "sustainable" biofuels such as waste vegetable oil and the development of more efficient biofuel technologies, it adds.

Sustainability fears

The Environmental Audit Committee says the UK government and the EU have been "misguided" in prioritising biofuels for road transport when it is much more efficient under current technology to use them for heating and cooling.

The committee notes that last week BBC News published an admission by the EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas that the EU had not foreseen all the problems entailed in biofuels.

The MPs say this proves the need for a moratorium on the target until it is proved that biofuels can be produced sustainably.

It says current agricultural support for biofuels is largely unsustainable.

Committee chairman Tim Yeo said: "Biofuels can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from road transport - but at present most biofuels have a detrimental impact on the environment overall."

The report is strongly backed by the RSPB which calls current biofuels targets "farcical".

The Royal Society shares the committee's concern that the EU should ensure that the most efficient biofuels are encouraged - but fears a backlash against biofuels which might deter investment in better biofuel technologies.