EU Bully Boy Tactics Over Biofuel Quotas

According to an article by James Randerson and Nicholas Watt which has been published in the UK Guardian newspaper, Gordon Brown, the British Prime Minister, is preparing to do battle with the European Union over biofuels after one of the UK government’s leading scientists warned they could exacerbate the problem of climate change rather than help to beat it it.

In an damning attack on a policy which comes into force next week, Professor Bob Watson, the chief scientific adviser at the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said it would be wrong to introduce compulsory quotas for the use of biofuels in petrol (gasoline) and diesel before their effects on climate change had been properly assessed.

“If one started to use biofuels … and in reality that policy led to an increase in greenhouse gases rather than a decrease, that would obviously be insane,” Watson said. “It would certainly be a perverse outcome.”

Under the EU Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation, all petrol and diesel must contain 2.5% of biofuels from April 1. This is designed to ensure that Britain (and all other EU countries) complies with a 2003 EU directive that 5.75% of petrol and diesel come from renewable sources by 2010.

But scientists have for some time increasingly questioned the sustainability of some biofuels, warning that by increasing deforestation the energy source may be contributing to global warming, not reducing it..

Professor Watson’s warning has been supported by Professor Sir David King, who recently retired as the UK government’s chief scientific adviser. He said biofuel quotas should not proceed until the results were known of a review which has been commissioned by the UK government.

“What is absolutely desperately needed within government are people of integrity (they’ll take some finding – xlcr) who will state what the science advice is under whatever political pressure or circumstances,” he said.

The EU plans to raise the compulsory biofuel quota to 10% by 2020, but Gordon Brown is understood to be ready to challenge this plan. A senior UK government source said: “There is a growing feeling that we need to get all the facts. Some biofuels are OK but there are serious questions about others. More work needs to be done.”

Sources say the government has no choice but to implement the guidelines next month because Britain is obliged under EU law to comply with the 2010 target.

But the report on biofuels, to come from the head of the Renewable Fuels Agency, Professor Ed Gallagher, may be used to challenge the more ambitious target for 2020, which is not set in law.

The UK government’s current chief scientific adviser, John Beddington, is already dubious about biofuels. At a speech in Westminster recently he said demand for biofuels from the US had delivered a “major shock” to world agriculture, which was raising food prices globally. “There are real problems with the unsustainability of biofuels,” he said, adding that cutting down rainforest to grow the crops was “profoundly stupid”
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Britain will move cautiously in its battle with Brussels because José Manuel Barroso, the European commission president, is supporting the 10% target for 2020. Barroso this month dismissed as “exaggerated” claims that biofuels can lead to increases in food prices and greenhouse gas emissions due to deforestation. But other members of the commission and other countries, including Germany, sympathise with Britain.

Brown was due to release a report touching on issues including biofuels, when he met Barroso in Brussels recently. But the Prime Minister decided that the time was “not right or ripe”.

The Prime Minister made clear that Britain is wary of the target when he said last November: “I take extremely seriously concerns about the impact of biofuels on deforestation, precious habitats and on food security, and the UK is working to ensure a European sustainability standard is introduced as soon as possible, and we will not support an increase in biofuels over current target levels until an effective standard is in place.”

It remains to be seen whether Britain is bullied by the EU into accepting higher quotas or not. Unfortunately, we no longer seem to have a Margaret Thatcheresque character in government who is prepared to stand up to the EU. We have to be careful that we don’t lurch from an oil crisis to a food crisis, bearing in mind the westernisation of diets in China and India, which is leading to a greater demand for food crops that the biofuel industry also wants.