Renewables Expert Upbeat On Biofuels Target

By freelance Journalist Tony Mallet, Brussels.

The policy chief of Europe’s most influential renewable energy body has rubbished biofuels comments made by the European Parliament’s rapporteur on the Fuel Quality Directive.

Oliver Schaeffer, of the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC), this week poured scorn on suggestions by MEP Dorette Corbey, that the EU’s target of using 10% biofuels in Europe’s transport fuels by 2020 is ‘too high’.

The biofuels target is part of a broader goal to ensure that 20% of all European energy comes from renewable sources by the same year.

Dutch Socialist Corbey told this website: “We’re still waiting for the second generation of biofuels to come through. The balance is wrong at the moment – there are not enough good ones and they take up too much space. A lot of MEPs feel that a 10% biofuels target is too high.”

But Schaeffer hit back saying: “If we wait until the second generation is ready we’ll never reach our target. We need to start now and combine the two as we go along.

“Granted, we are shooting for the moon. It’s ambitious but it’s feasible. We can deliver the target within the necessary sustainability criteria. It is technically, financially and scientifically possible and, in fact, the potential is much higher than 10%.

Industry ‘Mistakes’

Speaking ahead of the World Biofuels Markets Brussels Expo, to be held from 12-14 March, Schaeffer was equally forthright about the so-called food versus fuel debate.

He denied that growing crops for biofuels was the primary cause of rising food prices, saying: “What is driving food prices up? The modern diet in China, for one thing. Meanwhile, 98% of the tortillas produced in Mexico are produced by one company. They are controlling the price.”

The oil industry came in for criticism too. Said Schaeffer: “We don’t want to make the same mistakes as them. They are destroying on the ground in Nigeria, for example, and it’s clear that we can deliver compared to the oil industry on greenhouse gases and emissions.”

Comparing the industry to a huge oil tanker that takes an age to turn around, Schaeffer added: “The industry has a big problem with biofuels. The renewable market already has a turnover of €35 billion and by 2020 that will be €300bn. But how many industry CEOs actually think further than three years ahead?”

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