Environment Committee votes to add biofuels sustainability criteria to EU fuel directive
Thu 29 November 2007
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The European Parliament's Environment Committee has voted to support the Commission's proposal to add minimum sustainability criteria to the EU's Fuel Quality Directive.
In a vote in late November, MEPs agreed that, from 2009, all fuel suppliers should be required to monitor and report on the greenhouse emissions produced by their fuels throughout their life-cycle (i.e. production, transport and use) and that those emissions should be cut by 10% between 2011 and 2020.
However, the Committee also voted in favour of granting a more flexible timeline to industry, saying that CO2 emissions should be reduced by "at least 2% every two years" rather than the strict annual 1% cut that the Commission was proposing.
MEPs approved the introduction of binding sustainability criteria in the Directive, saying these are necessary to avoid fuel suppliers focusing purely on cutting CO2 at the lowest possible cost, without any consideration for other potentially negative environmental side-effects – notably those linked to the mass production of biofuels from agricultural source which could include deforestation, food price hikes and water shortages.
Earlier in the month, EU environment ministers said they still have significant concerns about the proposed Fuel Quality Directive. While reaffirming their support for the Directive's goal, in principle, they said three main conditions had to be met to make the proposal a viable legislative option. Some of these conditions were addressed by the Environment Committee, as above.
First, the ministers said that there must be sustainability criteria for biofuels production. Secondly, the relationship of the fuel proposal to other legislation must be clarified. Many ministers said that the proposals would require a higher production of biofuels than the 10% already agreed by EU governments. Thirdly, the national representatives said that there should be clear, harmonised methods to calculate life-cycle emissions.
Several countries also questioned whether the 10% reduction by 2020 was achievable.
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