EU debates U-turn on biofuels policy

摘要

The European Union (EU) has spent the past 10 years nurturing a €15-billion (US$20-billion) industry that makes transport fuel from food crops such as soya beans and sugar cane in the hope of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. Yet for more than half a decade, scientists have warned that many food-based fuels might actually be boosting emissions relative to fossil fuels. Now the EU could change course by setting a cap on the use of food-based biofuel, but pressure from industry, farming and energy lobbies threatens to limit the reversal. Tensions are rising over how much of the emerging science on biofuel emissions will be included in EU policy ahead of a vote on 10 July by the key European Parliament committee dealing with the legislation.