Environment Committee Calls for Reduction Of EU Biofuel Use Goals, Stricter Standards

摘要

The European Parliament's Environment Committee July 7 approved amendments that call for a significant revision of European Union plans to have biofuels as the mainstay of its target requiring renewable energy to account for 5.75 percent of energy use in the transport sector by 2010 and 10 percent by 2020. The amendments, approved on a 36-0 vote by a cross-party group of European parliamentarians, called for the renewable target in the transport sector to be lowered to 4 percent by 2015, with at least 20 percent of that amount coming from the use of non-biofuel sources, such as hydrogen from renewable sources or biogas from lignocelluloses biomass and algae. In addition, the Environment Committee said the 2020 target should fall between "8 and 10 percent," with a similar increase in the contribution from non-biofuel sources.