Berlin Green Week Highlights Benefits of Biofuels
GERMANY - Copa-Cogeca highlighted the major benefits of biofuels for the environment, for the economy, for animal feed, for growth and jobs in EU rural areas and called for a consistant EU policy at a major conference during Berlin Green Week.
21 January 2014
2 minute read
By: Copa-Cogeca warned that if the EU cuts its biofuel targets it will fail to meet its EU energy and climate change goals.
Speaking at the 11th International conference on biofuels "Fuels of the Future 2014" in Berlin, Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen stressed: "Biofuels offer many advantages in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in transport, energy dependency, providing employment in EU rural areas. They are part of green growth.
"Farmers and industry invested a lot of money in the sector after the EU institutions agreed in 2006 to ensure that 10 per cent of transport fuels come from renewable energy sources by 2020. Any proposal to reduce this limit is totally unacceptable and not backed up by science.
"A cut would threaten the EU’s energy and climate change targets, over 200,000 jobs mostly in rural areas, and feed supplies for animals. This is because the bi-products from conventional biofuel production, such as rapeseed meal, rapeseed meal, beet pulp and dried distillers grains play a crucial role on the feed protein market and in the EU food chain, where the EU is facing an ever-increasing shortage."
The event was attended by MEPs and experts from across the EU who united to reject any proposal to limit their use and go back on decisions made almost 10 years ago.
