ITF/OECD Round Table reports biofuel concerns
Tue 12 June 2007
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Leading transport, energy and environmental experts have expressed their concerns about biofuel sustainability. Their comments followed a meeting of the International Transport Forum and the OECD Joint Transport Research Centre.
The meeting, held in Paris, included 40 leading experts. Afterwards, the Secretary General of the ITF, Jack Short, expressed his worry that few biofuels seem to offer much in the way of climate protection or oil security and are a very expensive way of addressing these concerns.
Nevertheless, the committee noted the need for pragmatism, given that production targets for the biofuels market are in place. It supported the systems of certification that rank the performance of existing biofuels and give priority to the better kinds, which some governments are developing. (The UK is a leader in this area, with a voluntary registration system beginning in April 2008). Short backed attempts to get certification systems up and running quickly, at least as voluntary schemes, as a means of restricting the production of the poorest biofuels. There are, however, already some import tariffs in place that restrict the growth of the international biofuel market.
The ITF said that far cheaper ways to save fuel and emissions already exist in the transport sector and the economy as a whole, and warned that subsidies can lower transport fuel costs, thereby providing a disincentive for energy efficiency. The ITF cited the $4 billion assigned by the US government to biofuel subsidies in 2007 - 25% of its total farm subsidies' budget - while the overall OECD figure is around $15 billion. The ITF pointed to California as a cheaper, more effective way forward. It has produced legislation that provides targets for all fuels, not just biofuels; an approach now being considered by the EU.
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