Together with other European associations, Copa and Cogeca urged MEPs to ensure that at least 8% of transport fuels come from biofuels made from arable crops by 2020 when they agree legislation on future EU biofuel policy. “Any cuts in the targets to promote the use of biofuels made from arable crops would be detrimental to growth and jobs, energy and climate targets and feed supplies”, Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen warned.
A stable and targeted decarbonisation policy to support biofuels, including certified sustainable biofuels made from arable crops, is needed for the post 2020 period, they said. A separate binding target for advanced biofuels is also part of the longer term perspective and paramount to enable investments and foster the sector’s commercial development, in parallel to conventional biofuels made from arable crops.
In addition, we oppose including Indirect Land Use Changes (ILUC) in the legislative provisions as the models used as a basis to introduce iLUC factors in the fuel suppliers reporting to Member states were unacceptable and not backed up by science. They also were not agreed at international level. It is not suitable for precisely estimating the extent of land use change in non-EU countries and the resulting greenhouse gas emissions, due to critical data errors and important methodical problem
The move comes as MEPs Environment committee is set to debate a report on the issue by MEP Nils Torvald next Tuesday.
