Human Rights, Rare Species on EU Biofuels Agenda
Date: 01-Jul-08
Country: BELGIUM
Author: Pete Harrison
But the critical issue of how much CO2 they should save is as yet undecided.
Biofuel use is soaring as developed countries try to curb dependence on imported oil and cut emissions of carbon dioxide, but critics say the industry has encouraged deforestation and pushed up food prices by competing for grain.
As part of its drive to lead the world in battling climate change, the EU plans to get 10 percent of its transport fuels from renewable sources like biofuels by 2020.
The EU set up a working group in February with experts from the Commission and member states seeking ways of hitting the goal without causing social or environmental harm.
"The possibility of getting an agreement is much improved now," said Miran Kresal, who chaired that working group on behalf of Slovenia, which on Tuesday hands the EU's presidency to France.
Last week, aid agency Oxfam said the knock-on effects of biofuels were pushing 30 million people worldwide into poverty. And this week, a long-awaited report in Britain will advise the government on other unwanted side effects.
Aid agencies say EU targets encourage the exploitation of workers in biofuel exporting countries, pointing to tough conditions in the sugar cane plantations as an example.
The group looked at imposing legally binding standards on exporters, such as ILO labour rules. But the idea has lost currency due to the risk it might break World Trade Organisation rules on free trade.
"It will probably move towards a case of heavy reporting of social standards by the European Commission," Kresal told Reuters.
DEFORESTATION
Efforts towards a sustainable market for biofuels are being closely watched by producers like Brazil, which hope the EU's huge market will create the critical mass to bring biofuels into the global mainstream.
Biofuels that do not meet the EU's strict new standards will not be banned, but member states will not be able to count them towards their renewable fuels targets.
Environmentalists have also argued that biofuel production has led to deforestation, both directly and indirectly by using up agricultural land, forcing farmers to slash into virgin rainforest to make room for food crops.
"We're close to getting an agreement on how to protect primary forests," said Kresal. "You would not be able to grow biofuels on land that had a significant change in carbon stocks, such as forest or grassland."
The problem remains how to monitor that situation outside the EU, with satellite photography one possible solution.
The latest rules protect biodiversity by banning EU incentives for biofuels grown in areas of primary forest, the habitats of rare species and in biodiverse grasslands and savannah.
The EU's Slovenian presidency has also introduced the concept of bonuses for biofuels that improve the carbon stock of land, for example by increasing the plant density of abandoned rubber plantations.
But several key areas are still being debated, such as the level of greenhouse gas savings a biofuel would have to achieve as well as how to calculate the performance of different crops and different methods for converting them to biofuels.
Kresal is confident the EU is moving towards a robust system, but adds: "I see a philosophical challenge, as we're taking more care over the vegetable oils you put in your car than the oils you put in yourself through what you eat.
"If you put that same oil in chocolate, nobody would say a thing," he added. "We could end up with the paradox that the cleanest vegetable oils go in your car, and then there would be dirty oils that are only fit to be used in food."
(Reporting by Pete Harrison; editing by James Jukwey)