Need for Stable EU Policy for Biofuels R&D

Europe needs a stable legal framework for biofuels research and development, said Nestle Oil's Executive Vice President Matti Lehmus at the Fuels for the Future conference held in Berlin, Germany last January 21 in relation to the European Union's response to address the issue of Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) and to support the development of second-generation biofuels.

The use of food crops as feedstocks to meet the EU 2020 target for renewable energy use has been called into question because of the ILUC impact or the unintended consequence of releasing more carbon emissions due to switching of land usage towards feedstock production. To address the ILUC issue, the EU has proposed to revise its target so that only a maximum of 5% of total fuel in transportation, or half of the overall target, would come from first-generation biofuels, or those made from food crops. The other half would have to come from second-generation biofuels, or those that can be made from other types of biomass such as lignocellulosic or woody crops, algae, etc. Lehmus said that though this proposal is not ideal, it must not be modified by later policy changes. He also said that the lack of EU-wide legislation related to second-generation biofuels is likely to discourage investment in R&D.