UK orders biofuels impact review; Greenpeace calls for moratorium; European Federation for Transport and Environment calls for abandonment of EU targets, as Science magazine article reaction continues

In reaction to articles published last week in Science magazine, the UK government has ordered a revised analysis review on biofuels, but reconfirmed a biofuels target of 2.5% of transportation fuel by April, rising to 5% by 2010.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace called on the government to suspend biofuels targets. John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said “The scientific evidence is mounting – biofuels are often more damaging to the climate than the fossil fuels they are designed to replace. While it’s good news that the Government has commissioned a report to assess the consequences of these fuels, the fact remains that from April this year we’ll be forced to pump biofuels into our petrol tanks. The Government needs to introduce a moratorium on the UK’s biofuel targets until this review has been published.” Oil Voice published the Greenpeace call.

In London at International Petroleum Week, Jos Dings, director of the European Federation for Transport and Environment, said quantity targets for biofuels should be dropped in favor of a low-carbon standard, which gives incentives to companies to invest in high-performance, advanced biofuels. Peter New, president of global biofuels at BP noted that the European 2020 target was equivalent to building a 300 million gal plant every week.

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