A key panel of European Union lawmakers voted on Thursday to lower a target for using traditional biofuels from crops in petrol and diesel as part of the EU's plan to fight climate change. The move could curb the growth of a market coveted by biofuels exporters such as Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as European farming nations. The executive European Commission has proposed that 10 percent of all road transport fuel come from renewable sources by 2020, without specifying how much of that should be biofuels, renewable electricity or hydrogen. Environmentalists attacked the policy, charging that biofuels produced from grains and oil seeds contribute to rising food prices and deforestation. The European Parliament's influential industry committee endorsed the overall 10 percent target but voted that at least 40 percent of it be achieved with electricity or hydrogen from renewable sources, or second-generation biofuels from waste. That would leave just 6 percent coming from traditional biofuels made from grains and other food stocks. “While the maintenance of a binding target for biofuels is a bitter pill to swallow, the committee has at least strengthened the safeguards against the damaging impact of agri-fuels in this directive,” said Luxembourg Green MEP Claude Turmes who led negotiations in the committee. The committee's decision will likely serve as parliament's position in negotiations with the 27 EU member states later this year or in early 2009 on the final shape of the legislation. The panel approved a mid-term goal of 5 percent of road transport fuel from renewable sources by 2015, of which a fifth should be alternatives to biofuels from food crops. And it stipulated that biofuels must achieve a CO2 reduction of 45 percent compared to petrol or diesel, rising to 60 percent in 2015 -- levels much more ambitious than those being mulled by EU member states. It also approved a major review by 2014 to assess how the 2020 target should be composed in light of technological advances, and whether it was attainable at all. “Using crops to feed cars... could lead to irreversible loss of wildlife and misery for millions of people in the south,” said Friends of the Earth campaigner Adrian Bebb. The committee vote was more important than usual because France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, is pressing for a quick enactment of the environment legislation.
