France to limit biofuels to 7%

First generation biofuels will not count for more than 7% of France’s transport fuels in 2020, says Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.

France will not allow ‘first generation’ biofuels to account for more than 7% of transport fuels in 2020, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told a conference this weekend.

The announcement follows the news that the European Commission will propose in October to limit such biofuel, which have been shown to use more land that would otherwise be used to grow food crops, to 5% of energy consumption in the transport sector by 2020.

Today (17 September) the Commission acknowledged the 5% figure in a press statement sent out to journalists.

Environment and food campaigners have been urging the EU and the United States to scrap their biofuel quotas as evidence mounts that some of the most commonly used biofuel is causing indirect land use change (ILUC) that affects food supply and causes increased CO2 emissions.

The EU has set a target of sourcing 10% of transport fuel from renewable sources by 2020, which has driven increased demand for biofuel.

Energy ministers meeting informally in Cyprus today discussed the EU’s renewable energy strategy behind closed doors. But the meeting did not result in any common declaration on the biofuel issue.

As the ministers met in Cyprus, campaign group Oxfam released a report claiming that the EU’s 10% biofuel target alone could push up the price of some foods by as much as 36%. This is particularly true for the global price of vegetable oil and oilseeds.

But the European Commission said its proposal will address these concerns. “It is wrong to believe that we are pushing food-based biofuel,” climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard and energy commissioner Gunther Oettinger said in a joint statement.

They said that the upcoming proposal to limit first-generation biofuel to 5% shows that “our clear preference is biofuel produced from non-food feedstocks, like waste or agricultural residues such as straw. This new type of biofuel is not in competition with food, nor does it require additional land.”

A separate report released today by the International Council on Clean Transportation said that the 5% limit and the addition of ‘ILUC factors’ ranking biofuel by the harm it causes needs to be added to EU policy to avoid actually increasing emissions.

“We can’t know for sure what the exact land use impacts of biofuel expansion will be – but this study shows that we can be confident that introducing ILUC factors will make the policies more effective and will greatly reduce the risks of doing more harm than good,” said the ICCT’s  Chris Malins, author of the study.

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