EU rethinks biofuels guidelines

[GliderGuider]

EU rethinks biofuels guidelines

Europe's environment chief has admitted that the EU did not foresee the problems raised by its policy to get 10% of Europe's road fuels from plants.

Recent reports have warned of rising food prices and rainforest destruction from increased biofuel production.

The EU has promised new guidelines to ensure that its target is not damaging. EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said it would be better to miss the target than achieve it by harming the poor or damaging the environment. He said the EU would introduce a certification scheme for biofuels and promised a clampdown on biodiesel from palm oil which is leading to forest destruction in Indonesia.

A couple of years ago biofuels looked like the perfect get-out-of-jail free card for car manufacturers under pressure to cut carbon emissions. Since then reports have warned that some biofuels barely cut emissions at all - and others can lead to rainforest destruction, drive up food prices, or prompt rich firms to drive poor people off their land to convert it to fuel crops.

Finally, some constraints are being introduced into the market. Now it's up to the USA to follow souit.

[jwirr]

1. IMO plants should only be used if their food value can be kept intact.

That is where the research should be heading for bio-fuels.

[depakid]

2. No free lunch with energy issues

Unless of course you're an Iowa corn farmer- who doesn't eat fish from the Gulf of Mexico.

[The2ndWheel]

3. You know what's amazing?

"Europe's environment chief has admitted that the EU did not foresee the problems raised by its policy to get 10% of Europe's road fuels from plants."

That I can sleep at night.

[GliderGuider]

4. "Hey, who knew?"

I wonder how they can breathe with their heads buried that deep in the sand (or shoved that far up their butts).

I just spent half an hour cluing up a co-worker about the clusterfuck. He's already seen one of my earlier talks about Peak Oil, but when I laid out the whole thing for him he looked a little shell-shocked.

• Agricultural yields in Africa may decline 30% by 2050 due to climate change.
  
• Average per capita GDP in Africa may decline 70% by 2050 due to energy shortages.
  
• Africa imports 25% of their calories.
  
• Africa's population is projected to double by 2050.
  
• World fertilizer prices may increase 20x by 2050.
  
• The world's total GDP is $64 trillion, but the derivatives market has a paper value of $700 trillion - 11x the whole world's annual income.
  
• Unconstrained global biofuel production is into the hyper-acceleration regime of a sigmoid curve.
  
• The world oil export market could be empty by 2040.
  
• The biomass of prey fish in Lake Michigan is down 92% since 1989.
  
• The ocean fisheries are crashing.
  
• The peat bogs are melting.
  
• The polar ice cap, the Greenland ice cap and WAIS are all crashing.
  
• Renewables are making no inroads into coal use.

What we need is electric cars in America. that'll fix it...