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July 2007
The European Union is committed to
developing and producing biofuels "in ways that protect our planet – not
in ways that create new risks," said European Commission President Jose
Manuel Barroso in his keynote speech to the International Biofuels
Conference in Brussels today.
The linked issues of energy security and climate change have placed
biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel at the top of political agendas
around the world, Barroso said, while underlining the challenges that
Europe must overcome to meet the EU's new policy of including 10 percent
biofuels in vehicle fuel by 2020.
"We are all aware that - in some cases - biofuels can be produced in ways
that do not deliver greenhouse gas savings," he said. "Equally - again, in
some cases - biofuels can be produced in ways which cause environmental
problems in terms of soil protection, water management, biodiversity, air
protection, and the world's forests."
"But that doesn't change the fact that it is possible to manage biofuel
development in ways that reap the potential benefits, without engendering
new problems," the president said.
While ethanol production from non-food plants is in the technical
development stage, biofuels are currently made from sugar cane, sugar
beet, palm oil and corn. To the extent that they can substitute for fossil
fuels, biofuels hold the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Wilmar, the world's biggest trader in palm oil, used to make biofuels, is
illegally logging rainforests, setting forests on fire, and violating the
rights of local communities in Indonesia, according to a new report
published Tuesday by Friends of the Earth Netherlands.
The report demonstrates the danger of the European Union's recent
commitment to replace 10 percent of its transport fuel market with
biofuels by 2020, the environmental group says.
"If the European Union continues to promote palm oil imports in order to
meet its recently adopted 10 percent biofuels target, this will simply
aggravate the severe environmental and social impacts in countries like
Indonesia," said Paul de Clerck, Friends of the Earth corporate
campaigner.
"The European Commission should accept that setting such a rigid target
was premature and drop it until the situation in producer countries has
been fully assessed," he said.
Europe is the world's biggest palm oil importer. Wilmar supplies
multinational companies such as Unilever, Nestle and Cargill.
Rully Syumanda, forest campaigner at Friends of the Earth Indonesia-WALHI
said, "Europe's growing demand for palm oil is leading to environmental
and social devastation here in Indonesia."
Today Barroso promised that the European Commission will set up a
"rigorous sustainability mechanism" to underpin a new market for these
products.
"Greenhouse gas emissions in transport are growing fast," European Energy
Commissioner Andris Piebalgs told conference delegates. "This growth is
negating the savings being made elsewhere."
"On present trends," said Piebalgs, "transport will account for more than
60 percent of the EU's increase in carbon dioxide emissions between 2005
and 2020; it is essential for these trends to be reversed."
"At EU level, there are just two policies with the capacity to do this on
a significant scale - vehicle efficiency improvements and biofuels," said
the energy commissioner. "We must promote them both strongly."
Barroso said, "Let's work towards globally agreed sustainability criteria
to open up a credible and sustainable international market. Any such
international mechanism can only be the result of a transparent and frank
dialogue with all trading partners," he said, "and today's conference is
an important first step towards that."
President Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, where biofuels have been in use
for decades, opened the international conference with the message that
biofuels are "the key to promote democratization in access to energy in
the world, reducing the inequalities between producer nations and
consumers."
Today, President Lula said, only 20 countries produce energy for about 200
countries of the world.
"With the adoption of the biofuels, more than 100 countries will be able
to produce energy, democratizing its access.
Lula advocated a coherent position on the part of the developed countries
that say they want to fight global warming. He said these countries must
not impose high import taxes on biofuels that would make it more difficult
for consumer countries to purchase climate friendly biofuels.
Lula said the solution is in stimulating the establishment of an
international market for ethanol and biodiesel sogovernments can indicate
clearly to the private sector that biofuels are one of the priority
pillars of their energy and environment agenda.
"We cannot emit contradictory signals," he concluded.
President Barroso said the European Commission is now working on the first
blueprint for the creation of an internal biofuel market in the EU, and a
legislative proposal will be put forward before the end of this year.
"This proposal will also serve as a basis for fostering relations with our
external partners, in particular for pursuing discussions on the creation
of an international biofuel market," Barroso said. "Convergence of
technical standards will play an important part in this."
"The recently established partnership between the EU and Brazil is an
example of the kind of partnership we want to build with others in this
growth area," Barroso said.
At the first EU Brazil Summit in Lisbon, Portugal on Wednesday, the
governments launched a EU-Brazil Strategic Partnership that will
strengthen ties in economic cooperation, research and technology, maritime
transport, satellite navigation and social issues.
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations and
European Neighbourhood Policy, said at the summit, "Brazil is a vital
actor on climate change and protection of forests. This will be one of the
key items discussed during the Summit. We have already set up a dialogue
on environment at the level of experts and are about to launch one on
energy."
Today, the EU and Brazil signed documents to establish an energy dialogue.
Based on existing agreements between Europe and Brazil, the dialogue will
develop bilateral cooperation in biofuels and other renewable energy
sources, low carbon energy technologies, and the improvement of energy
efficiency. The first meeting will take place this autumn.
Meanwhile, today a new 10 year forecast warns that soaring biofuel demand
is driving up agricultural prices.
The Agricultural Outlook 2007-2016, jointly published by the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization, FAO, and the Organization for Economic
Cooperation and Development, OECD, blames the recent hikes in farm
commodity prices on factors such as droughts in wheat growing regions and
low stocks.
The growing use of food crops for fuel is driving up crop prices and,
indirectly through higher animal feed costs, the prices for livestock
products, said the FAO.
"Most biofuel policies are new and it is not clear which measures are most
effective in achieving the mix of objectives such as lower fossil fuel
dependence or less greenhouse gas emissions," the report notes.
The report predicts that annual corn-based ethanol output will double
between 2006 and 2016 in the United States.
In Brazil, annual ethanol production is projected to reach some 44 billion
liters by 2016 from around 21 billion today.
In the European Union the amount of oilseeds used for biofuels is set to
grow from just over 10 million tons to 21 million tons over the same
period.
The report pointed out that higher commodity prices are a particular
concern for countries classified as net food importing countries, as well
as for the urban poor.
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