New Biofuel Proposals Could Have ‘Severe Implications’

22 April 2013 A PROPOSAL to reduce the market size for biofuel production in Europe will damage farmer confidence and reduce the incentive to produce for food, feed and fuel, the NFU has warned. The warning comes following the publication of a draft opinion on the indirect land use change (ILUC) proposal by French MEP Corinne Lepage. As the European Parliament’s lead rapporteur on the Environment Committee, Ms Lepage will set the tone for forthcoming debates on the contribution biofuels can make to the Renewable Energy Directive targets, which currently require member states to achieve 10 per cent renewable transport fuel by 2020. The draft opinion seeks to introduce ILUC factors on biofuel production and tightens the cap proposed by the European Commission to 4.27 per cent for biodiesel produced from oil crops. International land use modelling has provided a wide range of results and the NFU believes the EU Commission has chosen one modelling result, which includes some basic errors that bias results against biodiesel, on which to base its proposal. NFU crops board member Brett Askew said: “The consequences of this for arable production could be devastating and a further blow to UK and EU agriculture, with an estimated reduction of one-third in the cropped area of EU and UK oilseed rape and the impact of losing an important rotational crop on UK wheat yields. “It is clear Ms Lepage has failed to consider the severe implications of her opinion on productivity and biodiversity on-farm. Picking winners, as she has done in proposing a cap on biodiesel production, fails to reflect the interdependence of these feedstocks on-farm.” Mr Askew said the decision to introduce ILUC factors to control a ‘hypothetical conflict of food versus fuel naively confuses two issues of agricultural production and the original ILUC greenhouse gas savings’. “This simplistic approach fails to reflect the factors behind increasing production on farm, for all markets,” he added. “Simply destroying demand will not lead to an increase in future stock levels but instead a decline in production as markets correct themselves to reflect economic supply and demand levels.” Taylor Scott International