MEPs add biofuel criteria to EU fuel quality law
The European parliament's environment committee voted on Tuesday to add minimum sustainability criteria for biofuels to a draft revision of the EU fuel quality directive.
The European commission proposed the revision in January, and included a requirement on fuel suppliers to cut life cycle greenhouse gas emissions from road transport fuels by 10 per cent by 2020 (EED 31/01/07).
The committee adopted the sustainability criteria in a compromise amendment, despite opposition from MEPs in the parliament's centre-right EPP group (EED 14/09/07). Only biofuels that meet the criteria should be counted towards meeting the 10 per cent target, said the committee.
The criteria include a requirement for biofuels to deliver life cycle emission savings of at least 50 per cent compared with fossil-based fuels. MEPs also adopted detailed guidelines on how to calculate life cycle emissions from all fuels.
Biomass production or extraction must not lead to deforestation or loss of other carbon stocks, and must have 'no significant negative impact' on natural resources. Meanwhile all firms in the production chain must be certified and all fuel feedstocks must be traceable to their source, MEPs added.
The commission is currently preparing its own sustainability criteria for biofuels, which it intends to include in proposals to revise the EU biofuel directive. The committee said its proposals 'constitute a minimum set of criteria that can be further developed [during the revision of the EU biofuel directive]'.
MEPs also agreed to give member states more flexibility in meeting the 10 per cent life cycle carbon target. Fuel suppliers must cut life cycle carbon emissions by 2 per cent every two years, starting in 2012, rather than by 1 per cent every year as proposed by the commission.
Finally, the committee required the commission to clarify by 2008 the link between the fuel quality directive and the EU emission trading scheme – something several EU countries have also requested (EED 31/10/07).
*Meanwhile, on Monday the environment committee debated a draft non-legislative resolution on an EU green paper designed to promote the use of green market-based instruments (EED 28/03/07). In her draft resolution, French centre-left rapporteur Anne Ferreira criticises the green paper's failure to address the environmental impact of production, distribution and consumption patterns.
Courtesy of ENDS Europe Daily
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