Europabio on Biotechnology and Biofuels

The European Association of Bioindustries (EuropaBio) affirmed their stand on biofuels and showed how biotechnology can contribute to a low-carbon society  by helping to deliver sustainable, secure and competitive energy. The EuropaBio's pillars of sustainability include:

     1. The development of a credible and robust certification scheme to guarantee that biofuels are produced in an environmentally sustainable way.                                                                                                                                       

     2. The development of sustainability criteria for the biomass used for biofuel production as well as for all (energy) applications.

     3. The use of biomass for fuel purposes should not jeopardize countries’ ability to secure food supply, nor should it prevent protecting forests, preventing soil degradation and keeping a good ecological status of waters.

      4. The support of a threshold value for greenhouse gas (GHG) savings, restrictions on land use to avoid major reduction in carbon stocks and biodiversity loss from land use change.

In addition, EuropaBio believes that a stepwise approach coupled with an incentivisation system would be effective in having higher GHG savings in Europe. Johan Vanhemelrijck, Secretary General of EuropaBio stressed that, “it is very important that sustainability criteria are technology-neutral, transparent, and based on scientific evidence and on clear definitions."

For details, see the media release at: http://www.belgobiotech.be/Document/Press/EuropaBio%20Press%20release%20record%20straight%20on%20biofuels.doc