Photo: intelenergomash.ru
Just as with the electric vehicles that can’t be considered that much of a planet saving solution, biodiesel made from food crops won’t cut it either. And the EU Energy Council just agreed a deal to limit its production.
Until recently, biofuel has been considered a solution to renewable transportation energy, while also reducing tailpipe emissions. While that is partially true, it won’t be that good if we need to use our food crops to make it or cut down woods in order to get biofuel-dedicated fields.
The newly adopted law sets a 7 percent limit in the use of food-based biofuels for transport and is part of a goal to reach 10 percent of transport fuel made from renewable sources by 2020.
"We think this proposal is much better than nothing," said European energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger at the Luxembourg meeting of ministers. "We need to support research and development in advanced biofuels so we can move forward from generation one into generation two and generation three.”
Biofuels currently make up around 5 percent of transport fuel in Europe, with a big part of it sourced from crops like maize and rapeseed. One solution to keep our crops for food and not mow down forests for more room implies the use of biofuels made form algae or waste like straw. These processes are not affected by the new law, but they need more investment in order to be used on a larger scale.
The newly adopted law sets a 7 percent limit in the use of food-based biofuels for transport and is part of a goal to reach 10 percent of transport fuel made from renewable sources by 2020.
"We think this proposal is much better than nothing," said European energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger at the Luxembourg meeting of ministers. "We need to support research and development in advanced biofuels so we can move forward from generation one into generation two and generation three.”
Biofuels currently make up around 5 percent of transport fuel in Europe, with a big part of it sourced from crops like maize and rapeseed. One solution to keep our crops for food and not mow down forests for more room implies the use of biofuels made form algae or waste like straw. These processes are not affected by the new law, but they need more investment in order to be used on a larger scale.
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