Statement of Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs in response to the biofuels report of the House of Commons

Energy Commissioner, Andris Piebalgs, responding to the report of the House of Commons which calls for a moratorium on biofuels, said: " The Commission strongly disagrees with the conclusion of the Environmental Audit Committee of the British House of Commons report, where it says that the overall environmental effect of existing biofuel policy is negative. On the contrary, it is delivering significant greenhouse gas reductions, compared with its alternative, oil.

Today, there are only three ways to reduce greenhouse emissions in the transport sector: the shift from polluting modes to more energy efficient ones (i.e. rail, short sea shipping, collective transport); the promotion of less consuming road vehicles, by establishing CO2/km targets; and biofuels.

The Commission is actively promoting the first two (white paper on transport; proposal to limit the CO2 emissions from cars 19/12/07 COM/2007/0856 final), but biofuels ought to be supported as well because this is the most immediately feasible way of significantly slowing the worrying growth of greenhouse gas emissions from transport. This is of critical importance in a context where rising transport emissions are wiping out the hard-earned reductions of greenhouse gases achieved in other sectors.

However the key contribution of biofuels to the sustainability of the transport sector, should not make us forget its other benefits which are as important as the environmental ones namely: reducing our dependency on imported oil; providing a development opportunity for poor countries and paving the way for second generation biofuels (by developing refining capacity, distribution networks, biofuel cars, etc.).

Moreover, the report fails to mention that, until other technologies such as hydrogen became competitive, the only alternative to biofuels is oil. This means: a shrinking source of energy with serious environmental concerns in the regions where it is produced, that generates large amounts of CO2 not only when it is burned, but also when is extracted (gas flaring), transported (by tankers) and refined. Not to mention the negative impact that its fast growing price is causing to our economies, the geo-strategical tensions of the areas where it is produced and the negative impact that it has had in developing countries.

So said, the Commission shares the House of Common's concern that biofuels have to be sustainable, and that this sustainability has to be guaranteed by robust sustainability standards and mechanisms to prevent damaging land use change. This is precisely why the new directive for the promotion of renewable energy sources will call for the promotion of only sustainable biofuels, i.e. those that can ensure a substantial CO2 saving compared to the oil that would be consumed instead. Besides this, the directive will include, as a key element, a robust sustainability scheme that not only prevents damaging land use change, but also other environmental damages, such as the destruction of rain forests.

Currently biofuels are already traded with no such EU standards or sustainable schemes. The renewables directive will established for first time in history such a scheme. In this sense it will be a first step in catalysing the development of international sustainability standards for agricultural production in general.