The production of biofuels must be forced down

The production of biofuels based on food crops must and shall be forced down. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce a cap that limits production size. This is the assessment of the Danish Climate and Energy minister Martin Lidegaard. 

The EU Commission has recommended a production ceiling, which means that biofuels produced from food crops is limited to 5 % of the energy consumption in the transport sector. Martin Lidegaard is working to lower this ceiling to 4 %.

The critique of biofuels has especially been aimed at biodiesel which is produced from palm oil and other vegetable oils. It has turned out that an increased production of biodiesel necessitates an expansion of the global agricultural land to secure the supply of vegetable oils for food production. 

Plant in Grenaa threatened

The opposite is the case for bioethanol produced from corn and wheat. The reason is that this production results in a large co-production of valuable feed protein, which at the bottom line free up agricultural land. Yet, also bioethanol will be included under the new production ceiling, which among other things, threatens the plans of building a huge ethanol plant in Grenaa.

I understand their frustration in Grenaa - that they do not get credited for the quality of the technology that they have developed. My evaluation is, however, that the project in Grenaa has such a good environmental profile that it will be able to manage, even if we introduce a production ceiling,

says Martin Lidegard.