EU ministers 'discover' biofuels not an obligation

French Minister for Ecology Jean-Louis Borloo delivers a press conference in Saint-Cloud at the end of an informal council of European ministers for Energy and Environment. EU energy ministers announced that they had been labouring for 18 months under the false impression that an EU plan to fight global warming included an obligation to develop controversial biofuels.

European Union energy ministers announced during an informal meeting Saturday that they had been labouring for 18 months under the false impression that an EU plan to fight global warming included an obligation to develop controversial biofuels.

Documents issued by the EU since the ambitious energy and climate plan was unveiled in January 2007 have consistently said 10 percent of all vehicle fuel by 2020 would come from fuels made from plants.

The vast majority of biofuels in production today are extracted from corn and sugar crops.

"The member states realised that the Commission's plan specifies that 10 percent of transport needs must come from renewable energy, not 10 percent from biofuels," Jean-Louis Borloo, the French environment and energy minister, said at the close of the three-day ministerial gathering.

Biofuels have been heralded as recently as last year as a silver bullet in the fight against climate change.

In recent months, however, they have been fiercely criticised for driving up world food prices, diverting precious crop land, and aggravating deforestation.

Jurgen Homann, the junior economy and energy minister from Germany, also confirmed the misconception. The requirements for transport "do not speak of biofuels, but renewables," he told AFP.

The EU plan also calls for 20 percent of all energy needs in the 27-nation bloc to be met by renewable energy by 2020, and an overall reduction of greenhouse gases by the same date.

Š 2008 AFP

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