NGOs Tell Commission to Listen to Science and Differentiate Biofuels

by Claire Stam (EurActiv) A coalition of Czech and Slovak NGOs has called on the European Commission to draw a line in the Renewable Energy Directive revision (RED II) between more sustainable ethanol and the high greenhouse gas emitting tropical oils.

They also said that not all types of advanced biofuels should be accepted in the energy mix.

“Some conventional vegetable fuel pathways offer well-documented advantages over continuing using oil as a transport fuel,” the NGO coalition said, explaining that individual crops used for the production of agrofuels differ in their environmental, climate and social impacts, as well as their yield and efficiency.

They referred to the difference between agrodiesel from soybeans, palm oil as well as sugarcane ethanol and ethanol produced from corn, wheat or sugarbeet that is processed within the European Union.

They said European produced crop-based ethanol, such as that produced from corn, wheat or sugarbeet, “brings significant climate benefits by saving greenhouse gas emissions compared to petrol even after indirect land use change (ILUC) is accounted for”.

Furthermore, they said, it “lowers EU’s animal feed protein deficit hence alleviating the pressure on American ecosystems by replacing imported soy, creates rural jobs, and signs are it has not aggravated pressures on the environment in the past decade when conventional vegetable fuel production took off in Europe”.

“By rejecting all first generation of vegetable fuels or by adopting all types of second-generation vegetable fuels without taking into account the individual differences between them, the European Union could move further away from achieving the goals of a greenhouse gas reduction strategy and unwittingly cause a serious threat to the environment,” the coalition warned.

The next trilogue meetings are scheduled on 17 May and 29 May. No progress has been made so far under the Bulgarian EU presidency and it’s likely that the file will pass on to the Austrians.

The NGOs’ position is also supported by the Visegrad 4 plus Bulgaria, Latvia and Lithuania.

In a joint declaration, the group of farmers and processors active in the biofuels sector highlighted what they see as the biofuels’ main assets: “Crop-based biofuels currently play a key role in decarbonising transport. They effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions, bring protein-rich animal feed of high quality, and directly displace imported fossil fuels.”

This is why they called on the Commission not to decrease the renewable energy target in transport, but instead to increase it between now and 2030.