EU fiddling while oil burns - time for proactive biofuels policy

Europe's relationship with biofuels has been marked by dramatic turns. Last October, the European Commission made a 180-degree turn on biofuels policy by proposing to cap the use of biofuels from 'food crops' at 5 % of transport-sector energy. 

Serious sustainability issues can indeed arise with such crops but the narrow focus on biofuels ignored the complexity of global commodities markets. Demand for soya is driven by soaring meat consumption while palm oil is directed mainly at food and pharmaceutical markets. 

Also lost in the debate was the crucial role of increased agricultural productivity or the potential synergies from co-producing multiple types of goods - food, feed, fuel and fibre - in integrated landscapes, which can reduce the extent and impacts of land use change, writes Francis X. Johnson.

Therefore, with this cap, the EU endangers - or reinterprets - its own 10 % target leaving the status quo, conventional oil, as the biggest winner. 

According to Francis X. Johnson the European Commission needs to rise above the controversy. They must stop being reactive and make sound, evidence-based improvements to the biofuels policy. 

Francis X. Johnson lists a number of suggestions to what a smart, proactive biofuels policy could look like.

First of all, it would judge biofuels not by over-broad categories such as 'food crops' but by directly relevant measures of sustainability such as land use intensity and energy and greenhouse-gas balances.

Second, a smart biofuels policy would address land use and food security more broadly, across the agriculture sector. Growing 'food crops' for biofuels does not inherently threaten food security – Europe knows this first hand. But producing biofuels sustainably does require making the most of available land, focusing on strategies for food and fuel, not food versus fuel. Indeed, clearing rainforests to plant oil palm is just as bad whether the end use is biodiesel, biscuits or cosmetics. The EU can help developing countries make their agricultural systems more sustainable by engaging directly with them. 

Third, a better biofuels policy will look beyond biofuels to the ultimate goal: a sustainable economy based on renewable resources. What this means in practice is a bio-based economy, with biofuels as one component. 

There is no silver bullet: we need an array of solutions. But policy-makers need to keep in mind that while biofuels are conditionally sustainable, the fossil fuels they displace are always unsustainable.

The EU faces a choice when it comes to biofuels. It can bow to political pressure, impose arbitrary constraints and throw away the good with the bad or it can be a leader.

If the union combines proactive engagement abroad with sensible and more consistent market signals at home, the global and EU biofuels markets can move in tandem on a sustainable path - rather than ending up on separate and conflicting trajectories. Otherwise the combination of publicity-seeking NGOs and protection-seeking agri-businesses will ensure that the oil keeps burning while the commission keeps fiddling.

Read the entire article at PublicServiceEurope.com.