The European Commission in a joint statement today from Gunther Oettinger and Connie Hedegaard, Commissioners for Energy and Climate Change, said that they will reduce the targets for biofuel with a clear preference for biofuel production to come from non-food sources.

"It is wrong to believe that we are pushing food-based biofuels," Gunther Oettinger and Connie Hedegaard, Commissioners for Energy and Climate Change, said in a statement.

"In our upcoming proposal, we do exactly the contrary: We limit them to the current consumption level, that is 5.0 percent up to 2020," they said.

For post 2020, "our clear preference are biofuels produced from non-food feedstocks, like waste or agricultural residues such as straw.

"These new type of biofuels are not in competition with food, nor do they require additional land. We are pushing biofuels that help us cut substantial CO2 emissions, do not compete with food and are sustainable and green at the same time."

In 2009, the EU fixed a target for renewables to account for 20 percent of all the bloc's energy consumption and 10 percent in the transport sector, with biofuels to play a growing role.

Reuters reported last week the European Commission would seek to impose a limit on the use of crop-based biofuels of 5 percent as part of a target to raise the share of renewable fuel in the transport mix to 10 percent by 2020.


Monday's EU statement said the balance of the 10 percent target would be accounted for by "biofuels produced from waste and residues."

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