A draft law to cap the production of traditional biofuels and accelerate the shift to alternative sources, such as seaweed and waste, was approved by the Environment Committee on Tuesday. It aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that result from the growing use of agricultural land to produce biofuel crops.

"This has been an enormously challenging file. And at the same time a very interesting one. And it's complicated technically and technologically. I love this kind of political challenge and hope we will take it to a good result in the trilogues" said lead MEP Nils Torvalds (ALDE, FI) after the committee’s amendments to the draft law were approved by 39 votes to 26, with 4 abstentions.

Cap first-generation biofuels

Current legislation requires EU member states to ensure that renewable energy accounts for at least 10% of energy consumption in transport by 2020. But in the draft law approved today, MEPs say that first-generation biofuels (from food crops) should not exceed 6% of the final energy consumption in transport by 2020.

Boost advanced biofuels

Advanced biofuels, sourced from seaweed or certain types of waste, should account for at least 1.25% of energy consumption in transport by 2020, MEPs say.

Reduce indirect land use change

Using farmland to produce biofuel crops reduces the area available for food crops. This adds to pressure to free up more land, e.g. through deforestation, to grow more food - a process known as indirect land use change (ILUC). But deforestation in itself increases greenhouse gas emissions, which may cancel out part of the beneficial effects of using biofuels.

Parliament called as long ago as 2008 for the ILUC factor to be taken into account in EU biofuels policy, which has a budget of €10 billion per year.

Next steps

Mr Torvalds received a mandate (46 votes in favour, 20 against and 2 abstentions) to start negotiations with the Latvian Presidency of the Council of Ministers for a possible second reading agreement.

Reaction

Reacting to the vote on Wednesday, the NFU claimed that the parliamentarians’ decision “undermines food security,” adding that the committee’s approval “Signifies a bad day for sustainable biofuels and damages renewable energy policy across Europe.”
 
Factoring Indirect Land-use Change into decisions will allow legislators to look at the secondary effects of increased production of first generation biofuels. Once land conversion - as a result of indirect land use change - is factored in, many crop-based biofuels do not appear to carry significant environmental benefits - and some could be more polluting than petrol.

The NFU claimed that European food security could be threatened by the decision, as by-products of energy crops are made into animal feed. This feed, the union said, accounts for up to 40 per cent of energy crops’ output.

At its annual conference, which is taking place this week in Birmingham, the NFU released a report suggesting that the UK’s food self-sufficiency could decline by 7 percent over the next 25 years. The union called on government to support measures to increase agricultural production, warning that a rising population and certain policy decisions risk making Britain less self-sufficient in the long-run.

However, these claims were challenged by the Food Ethics Council’s Dan Crossley, who said “We believe that a focus on self-sufficiency is unhelpful, as it suggests that food security challenges can be solved simply by promoting production efficiencies - farming ‘more with less’ - whilst battening down the hatches.”    

Also commenting on the report, Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association, said, “The Soil Association shares the National Farmers Union's (NFU) concern about the loss of agricultural land for food production, but this is not being driven by a huge increase in farmland being used for weddings!

“The main cause of the decline in food production is farmland being diverted to growing oilseed rape for industrial uses and fuel, and recently the huge increase in farmland being used to grow maize for energy production in AD units - both trends that the NFU sadly supports. Until we stop good farmland being diverted in this way, food production will continue to decline.”