MEPs split ahead of vote on biofuel targets
Members of the European Parliament are scheduled to vote next week in Strasbourg on a controversial proposal to limit the amount of conventional biofuel that can be used to meet an EU target for transport fuel.
The proposal is a response to growing concern over indirect land use change (ILUC), which can mean that the cultivation of biofuel causes more emissions than it abates. There is also concern about biofuel crops displacing food production.
The European Commission’s approach, proposed in late 2012, would specify that only half of the EU’s target of 10% of transport fuel from renewable sources could be met by so-called ‘first generation’ biofuel suspected of causing ILUC. It would also force fuel companies to measure the amount of ILUC that their fuel causes, as part of fuel quality standards, though these would be for informational purposes only.
During a meeting of group leaders today (5 September), some centre-right MEPs will suggest that the vote be delayed until October because of reports published in the past few weeks.
An industry report presented to MEPs by the European Biodiesel Board (EBB) on Tuesday (3 September) presents evidence that ILUC impacts have been overestimated. EBB claims, for instance, that ILUC from production of rapeseed oil for biodiesel could be as much as 95% lower than European Commission estimates.
“The room for uncertainty on ILUC is too wide to put a figure in the directive,” said Raffaello Garofalo, secretary-general of the EBB, at a debate in the European Parliament yesterday (4 September).
In August, the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), an environmental consultancy, had to publish a revision to a report issued in April that had found biofuel received up to €5.8 billion in tax exemptions in 2011. This figure was revised down to between €2bn and €2.5bn. The biofuel industry claims that this demonstrates the inaccuracy of the evidence against biofuel.
However, environmental campaigners insist that though ILUC is difficult to quantify, there is enough evidence to show that harm is being caused.
IISD will publish a new report on Monday (9 September) showing that Europe’s import of palm oil, which is causing deforestation in Indonesia, is increasing faster than previously thought.
On Monday (2 September), campaign groups T&E, Birdlife Europe and EEB launched a ‘stop bad biofuels’ campaign focusing on the subsidies to first-generation biofuel. The campaign is collecting signatures to deliver to MEPs before next week’s vote.
In July, the Parliament’s environment committee backed the Commission’s proposal, but a more sceptical reception is expected in the full plenary. MEPs are likely to vote to raise the limit for first-generation biofuel from the proposed 5% to around 7%, according to Parliament officials. They may also vote to remove the ILUC reporting requirement from the fuel quality directive.
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