Fuelling the biofuels debate

Oh dear the European political machine seems to have got itself in a frightful muddle over its policy on biofuels. Caught in the headlights of a press conference last week (13th March) Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa is quoted as saying about biofuels that; “We’re not excluding the possibility that we’ll have to amend or revise our goals.” He was speaking at the opening day of the EU’s annual summit, as Slovenia is currently the holder of the EU’s 6 monthly revolving presidency.

In the current climate it got him easy headlines, and a good press. Unfortunately, he hadn’t compared notes with Mariann Fischer Boel, the European Commissioner responsible for Agriculture and Rural Development who, on the same day, was delivering a measured speech, “Biofuels: not a magic wand, but a valuable policy tool”, at the World Biofuels Markets conference in Brussels.

In her speech Ms Fischer Boel was adamant when she said; “Biofuels are controversial, and so is European policy on the subject. But in fact it has a solid justification. I would like to explain that justification today, so that everyone in the sector – within the European Union and outside – can be confident that no policy u-turns lie ahead.”

The full text of Mariann Fischer Boel’s speech can be seen here

Fischer Boel’s position was strengthened on Friday when a report, funded by the EU’s Intelligent Energy Europe programme, stated clearly that “The EU biofuels target for 2020 of 10% can be met with conventional feedstocks and current technology without major agricultural land use changes and environmental consequenses.”

The report, “A European road map for biofuels” was the conclusion of a two year project, co-ordinated by the Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands, and implemented by a consortium of seven independent European institutes with different disciplinary backgrounds. It was officially handed over to the EU on Friday and it is now up to the EU to act on.

The REFUEL report can be found at: http://www.refuel.eu/home/

So the option for the EU seems to boil down to a straight choice between the science or populist headlines. Apparently a ‘no brainer’, but one never knows with politicians.

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