Published:
10 Apr 2008 - The EEA Scientific Committee
has made public an opinion on the environmental
impacts of biofuel use in Europe. The Scientific
Committee recommends a new, comprehensive
scientific study on the environmental risks
and benefits of biofuels, and that the EU
target to increase the share of biofuels
used in transport to 10 % by 2020 should
therefore be suspended.
The Scientific Committee
assists the EEA Management Board and the
Executive Director by providing scientific
advice and delivering professional opinions
on any scientific matter in the areas of
work undertaken by the Agency. The committee
is composed of 20 independent scientists
from 15 EEA member countries, covering a
variety of environmental fields relevant
for the Agency's areas of activity.
Opinion of the EEA Scientific
Committee on the environmental impacts of
biofuel utilisation in the EU Greenhouse
gas emissions from the transport sector
are rising steadily, caused by the continuing
growth of transport volume. More than 90
% of the total transport emissions are due
to road transport.
Policies and measures
have so far not been sufficient to stop
further emission growth.
Owing to the increasing
urgency of these problems, mandatory biofuel
quotas have been introduced in the expectation
that in the medium term the growth in transport
emissions can be reduced and that the emissions
can be subsequently stabilised. In 2003,
the Biofuels Directive set the objective
of replacing 2 % of vehicle fuel supply
by 2005 and 5.75 % by 2010. The 2005 target
was not met and it seems unlikely that the
2010 target can be reached. Nevertheless
in 2007 the EU target for biofuels was increased
to an ambitious 10 % level by 2020, under
the conditions of production being sustainable
and second generation technologies being
commercially available.
Despite the fact that
the first targets were missed, the pace
of biofuel production in the EU and of biofuel
imports from third countries is picking
up. This gives rise to increasing concern
by the Scientific Committee regarding additional
environmental pressures inside and outside
the EU. Our concerns can be summarised as
follows:
• Biofuel production
based on first generation technologies does
not optimally use biomass resources with
regard to fossil energy saving and to greenhouse
gas reduction. Technologies for direct heat
and electricity generation should be preferred
because they are more economically competitive
and more environmentally effective than
biofuel production for vehicles.
• Biomass utilisation
implies combustion of very valuable and
finite resources from our living environment.
These resources ought to be preserved wherever
possible. Therefore biomass utilisation
must necessarily go hand in hand with energy
efficiency improvements. This is not yet
the case for the majority of applications
in the automotive and residential sectors.
• The EEA has estimated
the amount of available arable land for
bioenergy production without harming the
environment in the EU (EEA Report No 7/2006).
In the view of the EEA Scientific Committee
the land required to meet the 10 % target
exceeds this available land area even if
a considerable contribution of second generation
fuels is assumed. The consequences of the
intensification of biofuel production are
thus increasing pressures on soil, water
and biodiversity.
• The 10 % target will
require large amounts of additional imports
of biofuels. The accelerated destruction
of rain forests due to increasing biofuel
production can already be witnessed in some
developing countries. Sustainable production
outside Europe is difficult to achieve and
to monitor.
The overambitious
10 % biofuel target is an experiment, whose
unintended effects are difficult to predict
and difficult to control. Therefore the
Scientific Committee recommends suspending
the 10 % goal; carrying out a new, comprehensive
scientific study on the environmental risks
and benefits of biofuels; and setting a
new and more moderate long-term target,
if sustainability cannot be guaranteed.
EEA Scientific Committee
Media enquiries on this issue will be answered
by our Scientific Committee members, Prof.
László Somlyódy (Chairman)
and Prof. Manfred Kleemann. Please forward
enquiries to:
Òscar Romero, Press officer
