European Union

• Biofuel producers warn EU over "unjustifiably complex" sustainability rules, 7 November 2008 by BusinessGreen: "Eight developing countries have written to the EU warning they will complain to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) if it passes proposed legislation designed to improve the environmental sustainability of biofuels by restricting the types of fuels the bloc imports."
  • "The EU is considering legislation that is intended to ban the purchase of biofuels from energy crop plantations that are believed to harm the environment and lead to food shortages by displacing land used for food crops and contributing to rainforest deforestation."
  • "[E]ight countries – Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Indonesia and Malaysia – have written to the EU to protest against the proposals" in a letter that "claims that the new rules would 'impose unjustifiably complex requirements on producers' and argues that environmental criteria 'relating to land-use change will impinge disproportionately on developing countries'."[10]

• World needs to rethink biofuels - U.N. food agency, 7 October 2008 by Reuters: "The Western world needs to rethink its rush to biofuels, which has done more harm pushing up food prices than it has good by reducing greenhouse gases, a United Nations report said on Tuesday."
  • "The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said policies encouraging biofuel production and use in Europe and the United States was likely to maintain pressure on food prices but have little impact on weaning car users away from oil."
  • "Biofuels' rise could provide an opportunity for farmers in developing countries to develop the new cash crops, the report said, but that would only happen if subsidy regimes were changed to favour poorer countries rather than richer ones."[11]

• EU biofuel panic threatens planet - Brazil envoy, 19 September 2008 by Reuters/Business Feed: "Europe's heated debate over biofuels risks weakening one of the world's best tools to fight climate change and one of the developing world's best hopes for economic growth, Brazil's ambassador to the EU said on Friday."
  • The "huge potential market for biofuels is coveted by exporters such as Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as European farming nations. But the European Parliament last week agreed a 6 percent limit for fuels from foods such as Brazilian sugar."[12]

• EU in crop biofuel goal rethink, 11 September 2008 by BBC News: "European Union lawmakers have voted to set a limit on targets to increase the use of road transport biofuels."
  • "The original EU target that 10% of all road transport fuel should come from renewable sources by 2020 did not set limits for crop biofuels."
  • "A committee of the European Parliament has now voted to limit such fuels to 6% of the 10% target."

• Europe to reaffirm biofuels targets, 10 September 2008 by guardian.co.uk: "The European parliament will tomorrow reaffirm binding targets for biofuels in transport and for renewables in energy use in the face of growing political resistance."
  • "MEPs on the parliament's key industry committee will set a mandatory target of 5% of biofuels in transport by 2015, rising to 10% by 2020."
  • "They will also defy objections from several governments, including Britain, and approve in principle a system of penalties for countries which fail to meet interim targets for renewable energy."

• Less dependency on biofuels in EU climate plan, 29 July 2008 by Reuters: "Biofuels are down and energy efficiency measures are up as the European Union's ambitious plan to fight climate change works its way towards becoming law."
  • "[W]ith soaring world food prices blamed partly on competition for farmland from agri-fuel producers, biofuels are no longer the flavor of the month."
  • "Ministers now believe -- not least due to high oil prices -- that the biggest opportunity for a quick win in the battle against global warming lies in energy savings".

• Biofuel policies in OECD countries costly and ineffective, says report, 16 July 2008 press release by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD): "Government support of biofuel production in OECD countries is costly, has a limited impact on reducing greenhouse gases and improving energy security, and has a significant impact on world crop prices, according to a new study of policies to promote greater production and use of biofuel in OECD countries."
  • "OECD’s Economic Assessment of Biofuel Support Policies (PDF file) says biofuels are currently highly dependent on public funding to be viable. In the US, Canada and the European Union government support for the supply and use of biofuels is expected to rise to around USD 25 billion per year by 2015 from about USD 11 billion in 2006."
  • "The report calls on governments to refocus policies to encourage lower energy consumption, particularly in the transport sector. It also calls for more open markets in biofuels and feedstocks in order to improve efficiency and lower costs."[13]

• Setback to biofuels expansion, 9 July 2008, The Financial Times: "Contentious plans to raise the European Union's biofuels use have been dealt a blow after legislators called for the brakes to be put on the proposals."

• Europeans Reconsider Biofuel Goal , 8 July 2008 by the New York Times: "European officials proposed scaling back drastically on their goal of increasing Europe’s use of biofuels, a major about-face on a central environmental and energy issue."
  • "The Environment Committee of the European Parliament voted Monday to approve the measure and send it to the full Parliament. Members of each major political bloc on the committee called for a much lower target — 4 percent — and said the measures should be reviewed in 2015 before any decision to ratchet up that target to between 8 percent and 10 percent."
  • "Under the alternative proposals that the committee voted on, 20 percent of renewable transport fuels would have to come from feed stocks, like algae, that do not compete with food for cropland. Europe also could meet the target by expanding the use of vehicles powered by biogas, electricity or hydrogen by 2015. That figure would rise to as much as 50 percent by 2020. Nations also would have to abide by rules on environmental and social sustainability."[14]

• US and EU urged to cut biofuels, 7 July 2008, BBC World News: "World Bank President Robert Zoellick has called for reform of biofuel policies in rich countries, urging them to grow more food to feed the hungry."
  • "The US and Europe also need to take action to reduce mandates, subsidies and tariffs benefiting grain and oil seed biofuels that take food off the table for millions," he said.
• Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis, 4 July 2008 in The Guardian: "Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% - far more than previously estimated - according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian."
  • The report "argues that production of biofuels has distorted food markets in three main ways. First, it has diverted grain away from food for fuel, with over a third of US corn now used to produce ethanol and about half of vegetable oils in the EU going towards the production of biodiesel. Second, farmers have been encouraged to set land aside for biofuel production. Third, it has sparked financial speculation in grains, driving prices up higher."[15]

• Human rights, rare species on EU biofuels agenda, 1 July 2008 in The Guardian.
  • "The European Union is near to agreeing standards for biofuels that put human rights and endangered species high on the agenda"
  • "Biofuels that do not meet the EU's strict new standards will not be banned, but member states will not be able to count them towards their renewable fuels targets."
  • "But several key areas are still being debated, such as the level of greenhouse gas savings a biofuel would have to achieve as well as how to calculate the performance of different crops and different methods for converting them to biofuels."
• New report shows EU biofuel policy likely to cause worldwide environmental destruction, 6 May 2008 press release by Birdlife International: "The EU’s biofuel policy is likely to cause large-scale environmental harm across the world, according to a new report [Fuelling the ecological crisis - six examples of habitat destruction driven by biofuels (PDF file)] published today by BirdLife International."
  • "The report presents real life cases, from across the world, where the production of biofuel feed stocks is leading to the clearing of natural habitats. It examines the potential for future damage by analysing these case studies against the “sustainability standards” proposed by the European Commission, which are supposed only to allow “sustainable biofuels” to be allowed into the EU market."
  • "The major failing of the Commission proposal is that it ignores indirect effects of biofuel production such as increased consumption of EU oil-seed rape driving up demand for South-East Asian palm oil or US corn ethanol subsidies driving soya expansion in the Amazon."[16]

• CEZ boosts electricity production from biomass, up 52 percent in 2007, 4 February 2008, Biopact. The Czech Republic company is Central and Eastern Europe's largest power producer with biomass making up its second largest renewable energy source after hydropower.
• Europe May Ban Imports of Some Biofuel Crops, 15 January 2008, New York Times, due to concerns over the sustainability of biofuels, the European Union is considering a ban on certain types of biofuels, especially those grown on certain types of vulnerable lands.
• EU energy: Revolution for the UK, 24 January 2008, BBC News, discusses the challenges for the United Kingdom to meet the European Union energy goals in the next twelve years.
• Europe, Cutting Biofuel Subsidies, Redirects Aid to Stress Greenest Options, 22 January 2008, The New York Times: "Governments in Europe and elsewhere have begun rolling back generous, across-the-board subsidies for biofuels, acknowledging that the environmental benefits of these fuels have often been overstated....But as they aim to be more selective, these governments are discovering how difficult it can be to figure out whether a particular fuel — much less a particular batch of corn ethanol or rapeseed biodiesel — has been produced in an environmentally friendly manner."

2007

• Malaysia May Revoke Biofuel Permits as Palm Oil Rises, 11 December 2007, by Bloomberg: "Malaysia, the second-biggest palm oil producer, may revoke some licenses to produce biofuel from the commodity...as the surging price of the raw material makes the fuel too expensive to make, a minister said." A reduction in output by Malaysia could also make it difficult for The European Union to meet its targets for biodiesel use.[17]
• European biodiesel board threatens legal action against US biodiesel subsidies. According to Biopact, the board claims that a sharp increase in exports of biodiesel from the United States to Europe can only be explained by unfair practices that they may challenge in front of the WTO.
• Europe threatens trade war over US biodiesel subsidies, 22 May 2007 from The Independent. The European Biodiesel industry is claiming that the US "B99" subsidy is undercutting their industry. Particularly galling is the "splash and dash" loophole, which has allowed US traders to buy biodiesel in Europe, ship it back to the US, blend it <1% gasoline to earn the subsidy and ship it back to Europe. This is seen as undercutting both European producers as well as undercutting the greenhouse gas benefits of biofuels.
• European farmers reveal Bioenergy plans 30 January 2007 from The German Agricultural Society. A survey of European farmers reveals wide differences in their plans to adopt bioenergy feedstocks. Germany was the clear leader with other countries focused on other energy alternatives like windpower.

2006

• Foreign investors drive Hungary’s biofuel sector 27 November 2006 from Czech Business Weekly. European Union demand for biofuels, as well as the promise of EU subsidies, excise tax refunds, and a climate well-suited for growing corn and rapeseed, has brought in biofuels investors from Sweden and Italy, among others. 2005 saw some 2,000 metric tons of biodiesel and 10,000 metric tons of bioethanol produced in Hungary, all of which was bought by oil giant Mol to blend with conventional fuels to meet European Commission (EC) requirements.

• European MPs call for ban on use of palm oil for biofuels October 23, 2006 from Biopact. Members of the EU Parliament called for a ban on biodiesel made from palm oil, because the crop is responsible for enormous environmental damage in South-East Asia and elsewhere.

• MEPs, MPs urge caution in use of biofuels; call for ban on use of palm oil - 18 October 2006 from Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership.