Europe Backpedals on Biofuels [1]
Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson [2] on
The European Union (EU) has drastically changed its course for the future of biofuels [3]. Until this week, the EU planned to be the world leader in using biofuels as an alternative to petroleum-based fuel, aiming for 10% of transportation fuels to be derived from biofuels by 2020. "But the allure has dimmed amid growing evidence that the kind of targets proposed by the EU are contributing to deforestation and helping force up food prices." In the overall energy landscape, the EU currently produces 8.5% of its energy from renewable sources. The goal was to increase that to 20% by 2020, but biofuels were a large part of that equation. '"I think when we will look back we will say this was the beginning of a turning point for Europe on biofuels,' said Juan Delgado, a research fellow specializing in energy and climate change expert at Breugel, a research organization in Brussels. 'It will be very difficult now for Europe to stick by its targets.'" In a related story, The Guardian newspaper revealed last week [4] that a secret World Bank [5] report found that "biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated." The U.S. government has said that biofuels are only responsible for a 3% increase in food costs worldwide.