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EU and UK's Progress to Biofuel Introduction
Around the world governments have been giving substantial support to biofuels over the last five years, mainly because of their potential for greenhouse gas savings in relation to fossil fuels, writes Chris Harris, TheBioenergySite Senior Editor.Speaking at the recent European Bioenergy Expo and Conference in Newark in the UK, Dr Victoria Hodgkinson-Gibbs from the Department for Transport in the UK said that governments feel that biofuels can help to diversify the supply of fuels for transport and they also have benefits of fuel security.
The new biofuels also provide new agricultural markets and opportunities for development in rural areas.
In the UK in particular, biofuels are equated to greenhouse gas savings and because of this the Government has backed their development in a number of ways.
They have been encouraged by a derogation in the duty on fuel, but his is due to run out by 2010.
And they have also been supported more recently by the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation, which came into effect on 15 April this year. This requires road transport fuel suppliers to ensure that 2.5 per cent of the fuel they sell is made up of biofuels.
The amount of biofuel that the suppliers will have to put into their fuels will go up to 3.75 per cent by April next year and five per cent by April 2010, when the tax derogation runs out.
These targets for mixing a proportion of biofuel into traditional fuels follow the EU's 2003 Biofuels' Directive. This directive suggested that countries should set targets of 5.75 per cent of road fuels as biofuel by energy content or 7.5 per cent by volume.
Dr Hodgkinson-Gibbs said that this difference in amounts is because biofuels provide less energy than traditional fossil fuels.
However, she added that the UK's targets are among the lowest of all those set by EU countries.
She said that while the UK recognises the benefits to be gained from biofuels there are also concerns that they can help destroy local habitats and the environment and they also have a number of social issues that have caused criticism.
Because of all these issues the UK has laid down in its Road Transport Fuel Obligation that the use of biofuels has to be logged and reported for the carbon use and their sustainability.
The UK government has set out a number of targets of the proportion of the feedstock that meets acceptable levels of environmental performance and greenhouse gas savings.
"Our aim has always been to introduce mandatory sustainability criteria from 2011/12 subject to EU and World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreement," said Dr Hodgkinson-Gibbs.
"But this has now been overtaken by the two proposed EU directives - the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) and the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD)."
The Renewable Energy Directive sets a target for countries within the EU to have 10 per cent of their fuels for transport as renewables, by energy content. This includes the use of electric vehicles.
The directive will not allow unsustainable biofuels to count towards this total and it sets down the parameter that biofuels must show a 35 per cent carbon saving. The directive will not allow the fuels to come from areas that a high biodiversity and carbon stocks cannot be used for production. This ostensibly will help to protect areas such as the rain forest - an area that has caused great concern among environmental groups around the world.
The present directive includes direct sustainability criteria, Dr Hodgkinson-Gibbs said.
The Fuel Quality Directive ensures that suppliers reduce the lifecycle of greenhouse gas emissions of petrol, diesel and non-road gas oil between 2010 and 2020. These reductions can come not only through the use of biofuels, but also by making improvements in the way that fossil fuels are refined and extracted.
However, Dr Hodgkinson-Gibbs said that many EU countries have felt that the target set by the EU of a 10 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions - similar to the RED renewable energy content target - is too high.
Dr Hodgkinson Gibbs said there is new emerging evidence through recent research as well as through the recent rise in food prices that there could be other indirect effects that have not be monitored by the current way of looking at the potential and problems of biofuels. These new issues could completely wipe out the benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Because the benefits of biofuels might not have been all they appeared, the UK's Department for Transport called in Professor Ed Gallagher to examine the emerging evidence of the indirect effects of biofuels.
Emerging Indirect Impacts of Biofuel Production
The review focused on rising food prices and the effect upon food security for the poor; and the displacement of agricultural production onto cultivated areas with impacts on biodiversity, greenhouse gas savings and local land rights as a result of bio-fuel production.
The results that were published in July of this year shows that there is a future for a sustainable biofuels industry.
Dr Hodgkinson-Gibbs said that the Gallagher Report showed that biofuels can contribute greenhouse gas savings from transport, but only where significant emissions from land-use change are avoided and appropriate production technologies are employed.
She said that demand for food, animal feed and bio-energy is rising and creating additional pressure on land and Gallagher had found that current policies do not ensure that additional production moves to suitable areas.
The report recommends that the introduction of biofuels should be significantly slowed until adequate controls to address displacement effects are implemented and demonstrated to be effective.
In the UK, the rate of increase in the UK's Renewable Transport Fuels Obligations should be slowed to 0.5 per cent a year so that the RTFO reaches five per cent in 2013/14 rather than 2010/11 as currently planned.
The report says that at the EU level, 10 per cent in 2020 may ultimately be possible, but this will depend on a variety of factors.
Dr Hodgkinson-Gibbs said that because of the report findings the British government feel there is a need to take a more cautious approach to biofuels until it can bee seen that any adverse effects on the environment and on people are limited and controlled.
The UK has now started to consult about slowing down the rate of increase in the use of biofuels as set out in the RTFO and while it has kept the EU target of 10 per cent by 2020 it has also called for a rigorous review.
"We must ensure EU sustainability criteria address the indirect effects of biofuel production on land use, greenhouse gas emissions and food security; and that proper control mechanisms are in place and enforced internationally to deal with such effects," Dr Hodgkinson - Gibbs told the conference.
"These mechanisms must be proportionate and achievable."
The consultation process initiated by the UK Government will look at the rate of the introduction of biofuels into the system, although it recognises that by 2010 it will need a mechanism in place to support the Renewable Energy Directive.
"Slowing down strikes the right balance between the need to address risks and the need for a sustainable industry," said Dr Hodgkinson-Gibbs.
She said it gives more time to reduce uncertainties in science on the wider environmental and social impacts of biofuels and to gather evidence on issues such as how to measure and define indirect effects and determine what a good, sustainable biofuel looks like.
She added that it gives more time to develop the frameworks to incentivise production of good biofuels and address displacement effects, such as developing sustainability criteria to address indirect impacts.
It also gives time for more sustainable biofuel technologies to emerge.
The French Presidency is hoping to agree the text of the Directives by end December with a view to implementing both by March 2010.
At present, the directives are in the negotiation stage between the European Council and the European Parliament, but the content of the directives will set the direction for UK biofuels policy and will require further consultation and amendment to the RTFO, Dr Hodgkinson-Gibbs told the conference.
The issues being discussed include the environmental and social issues, similar to those in the RTFO in the UK, raising the greenhouse gas threshold from 35 per cent to 50 per cent and to consider whether the deadline for changing the mix in biofuel and fossil fuel should be put back to 2013/14 as seen in the Gallagher Report recommendations.
If the EU directives are agreed in December this year the British government will have until 31 March 2010 to transpose them into its own legislation.
"We do know, that we will have two targets - one under the RED and one under the FQD - but he question is how do we monitor these?," said Dr Hodgkinson-Gibbs.
"How do we account for renewable electricity and what trajectory should be used for the RED and FQD targets."
She said there needs to be focused research into biofuels to see how they affect the environment and populations and how sustainable biofuel technologies can be developed and enhanced.
November 2008
