Significant progress has been made in the fight to reduce air pollution caused by ships, as the International Maritime Organisation looks set to impose caps on sulphur in shipping fuels later this year.
Editorial by Jos Dings
T&E Director
It may not seem like it to people outside the Brussels ‘microcosmos’, but the debate on the future of EU biofuels policy is reaching fever pitch. What makes the debate difficult to understand is its complexity – both technical and political – and the fact that the battleground is a split site.
EU environment ministers will have a major say on the sustainability criteria that will accompany the future of European transport fuels, following a decision by representatives of the 27 governments.
Environmental groups BirdLife International, EEB, Friends of the Earth and Transport and Environment, welcome UK transport secretary Ruth Kelly's announcement that the UK will initiate a wide ranging review of biofuel production.
The Commission has published draft legislation committing the EU to 10% use of biofuels in transport, despite an admission by the environment commissioner that the EU had not foreseen the problematic side-effects of biofuels targets.
As the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the London-based United Nations body that regulates shipping across the world, began meetings this week to review and potentially tighten air pollution standards for the world’s shipping fleet, continuing scientific research has found that the use of cleaner marine fuel could prevent tens of thousands of premature deaths from shipping air pollution each year.
The EU strategy for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transport fuels is in disarray today following the European Commission's proposal to massively increase biofuel use, according to environmental groups BirdLife International and Transport and Environment (T&E). Whereas both organisations strongly support the Commission’s proposal of a 20% target for renewable energy by 2020, they argue that the 10% biofuels target is a dangerous dead end.
The EU’s mandatory biofuel target must be suspended unless substantial environmental and social safeguards are put in place, say 17 NGOs in a joint letter to the European Commission.
The European Parliament’s environment committee has given its support to the idea that sustainability criteria should be included in any legislation on reducing lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions from fuels in transport.
Editorial by Jos Dings
Slowly, slowly, recognition is rising that it makes more sense to set a climate obligation for fuel suppliers and let them figure out how to meet it in the most cost-effective way, than to prescribe a certain amount of biofuels with highly uncertain environmental effects.