Paul Taylor, Reuters 15 Apr 08;
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's environment chief raised new conditions on Tuesday for the use of biofuels in road transport, saying social concerns such as food prices and food security must be taken into account.
Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas did not explicitly question the EU's target of producing 10 percent of road transport fuel from crops and biomass by 2020, but he made clear that goal must be subservient to strict conditions.
Asked by Reuters whether the EU should reconsider the target in the light of soaring world food prices and fears that farm land in developing countries is being diverted to produce biofuels, Dimas said:
"The EU heads of state agreed to have a 10 percent biofuel target subject to compliance with sustainability criteria and the promotion of second generation biofuels.
"The issue of sustainability criteria is of crucial importance," he said in a written reply to a question.
The next generation of biofuels is expected to come largely from domestic and agricultural waste rather than food crops such as maize, sugar cane and palm oil.
Environmentalists have stepped up campaigning against biofuels, arguing they are already diverting production away from food and animal feed, and contributing to sharp rises in the price of cereals and milk products.
Dimas said the EU's sustainability criteria "must address both environmental and social concerns in order to be able to help us protect the environment and respect social justice".
The European Commission did not include social impacts in the criteria it proposed in January, which mostly concerned protecting rainforests and ensuring that biofuels achieve a real reduction in greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.
"CATASTROPHE"
A Commission source said Dimas and Development Commissioner Louis Michel had argued unsuccessfully at the time for social criteria to be added, but were rebuffed by Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.
However, the dramatic rise in food prices, coupled with food riots in several developing countries and public controversy about the impact of existing biofuels production have reignited the debate within the Commission, the source said.
Michel told the Belgian Senate on Tuesday that "I have long said that the fashion for biofuels could be a catastrophe especially in countries which are not self-sufficient in food", according to the Belga news agency.
Faced with strong public pressure, EU governments appointed a panel last month to define acceptable sustainability criteria for biofuels, which is due to report to ambassadors on May 7.
Scientists from the European Environment Agency last week urged the 27-nation bloc to drop the 10 percent biofuels target.
A Slovenian EU presidency official said the working group was not empowered to reconsider the target, but it was looking at how the criteria could be refined to limit social damage.
The working group is also exploring how to measure and calculate savings in carbon dioxide emissions from biofuels.
Dimas said once the conditions had been agreed, "such criteria then need to be rigorously applied".
The Commission said on Monday the EU had sufficient unused farm land to produce biofuels without reducing its own food output. However, EU experts say at most 6 percent of the EU target can be met from domestic production and at least 4 percent will have to be imported, notably from Brazil, the world's biggest ethanol producer.
(editing by Nigel Hunt)
