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EU Biofuels Target under Fire as New Study Reveals Sustainability Concerns15 Jan 08A new study has revealed that a rush to develop biofuels to replace fossil fuel consumption in the transport sector could actually damage the environment if not appropriately managed, just as the European Union looks to attach new "sustainability" criteria to its regional biofuels targets.
A Greener Option, But Not a Silver Bullet The United Kingdom's esteemed scientific body the Royal Society has warned that biofuels risk failing to deliver significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions from transport and could even be environmentally damaging unless the right policies are put in place to manage their production. The warning accompanied the release of a new study that examined the prospects of biofuels to reduce pollution from the transport sector and assessed the challenges that will exist in harnessing this potential environmental benefit. The study found that biofuels could play an important role in cutting greenhouse gas emissions from transport, both in the United Kingdom and globally. In the most positive instances—such as the production of ethanol from sugarcane in Brazil—biofuels could lead to carbon reductions of up to 80% as compared with the use of traditional petroleum products. However, the Royal Society noted that biofuels should not be seen as a "silver bullet" for emissions from the transport sector, with poorly managed production of biofuels potentially seeing no improvement at all in greenhouse gas emissions, or even a negative overall environmental impact. Achieving net positive environmental effects from the greater use of biofuels would rely on governments introducing appropriate policies to ensure production is sustainable and avoids the destruction of natural habitats, the Royal Society said. Policy Implications The Royal Society's study lays down the challenge for the U.K. government as it formulates its policy for encouraging the use of biofuels in the country. The government's Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) comes into force in April this year and will require fuel suppliers to ensure that 5% of fuels sold are derived from renewable sources by 2010. However, as the Royal Society's study has pointed out, the production and use of biofuels alone will not ensure that the potential environmental benefits of biofuels are fully realised. Indeed, in the United Kingdom it has been estimated that greenhouse gas savings of anywhere between 10% and 80% over traditional fossil fuels could be delivered by converting wheat to ethanol, depending on the production methods. The Royal Society therefore recommended that a target be attached to the level of greenhouse gas reductions achieved from the use of biofuels as well as their overall uptake, to ensure the full environmental benefits of switching from fossil fuels are realised. Indeed, the government currently looks to be moving towards such an approach with the Department for Transport indicating it was looking to adopt mandatory standards for greenhouse gas savings by 2010, and targets for wider sustainability by 2011. The Royal Society's warning applies not just within the United Kingdom, however, but is also relevant for Europe, where the European Union (EU) has agreed to an overall target of producing 10% of transport energy from renewable sources by 2020. The EU has already acknowledged the variable gains that can be achieved from different biofuel production methods and is poised to introduce "sustainability" criteria that will be attached to its overall target. Consistent with the Royal Society's findings, the EC’s own investigations into the matter look to have raised sustainability concerns. Speaking to the BBC yesterday, Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas admitted that the environmental and social problems caused by biofuels were more significant than the EC had first suspected, and noted that the EC would be moving forward very carefully as it sought to harness the potential climate change benefits of greater biofuels use. Outlook and Implications The growing evidence on the variability of environmental gains achieved from greater biofuel use is now quelling much of the initial optimism that biofuels could offer a one-stop solution to cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector. Indeed, the consensus view on the benefits that biofuels bring looks to have changed quite significantly in the 10 months since the European Union agreed to its overall target to meet 10% of its transport energy needs with renewable energy sources (see Europe: 12 March 2007:EU Renewable Target Gets Green Light, but Unbundling to Occur on Country-by-Country Basis). In the light of these growing concerns, the question must be asked whether a headline target for biofuels based on their contribution to final energy consumption is an appropriate way to harness their potential benefits at all. As the Royal Society suggests, a target based on greenhouse gas savings would seem to focus the government and producers on what really matters when it comes to encouraging biofuels uptake: its contribution to climate change mitigation, as opposed to simply seeking to achieve a certain level of consumption. While such a move is not anticipated by the EU—which has elected to address such concerns with the introduction of sustainability criteria to its biofuels targets, details of which are due to be released on 23 January—the growing concerns over the net benefits of biofuels may well spur a subtle change of emphasis away from the achievement of headline targets and towards encouraging the maximum uptake of biofuels possible in a sustainable manner. |
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