EU to boost production of green energy sources
The European Union today proposed plans to boost the production of alternative fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol through additional aid and investment, aimed at reducing Europe’s heavy dependence on oil and natural gas.
The European Commission said it hoped EU governments would back its plans to promote biofuels in the 25-nation bloc and outside it, mainly in developing countries.
Finding alternatives to oil and gas supplies has been pushed to the top of the political agenda after several European countries suffered gas shortages from Russia this winter and growing fears that supplies could be affected due to instability in the Middle East.
In a bold statement, US President George Bush recently acknowledged that the United States was hooked on oil and needed to find alternative fuels – a move welcomed by the EU.
EU spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso led a debate with the 24 EU commissioners on how to forge a common EU energy policy.
“The whole issue of energy solidarity between member states lies at the heart,” of such a policy, Laitenberger said.
He said EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs would draft a paper with more proposals by March and EU energy ministers will hold a special session March 14 to discuss a more co-ordinated energy stance.
EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said the time was right to push for alternative fuels.
“Crude oil prices remain high,” she said. “We face stringent targets under the Kyoto (climate change) Protocol and the recent controversy over imports of Russian gas has underlined the importance of increasing Europe’s energy self-sufficiency.”
The EU plan calls for incentives, including tax breaks, to promote use of cleaner fuels as a way of meeting global commitments to reducing greenhouse gases. Extra aid is proposed for farmers to continue growing crops like sugar beet and rapeseed or canola for use in the making of biofuels.
Aid is also to be given to poor farmers in developing countries, said EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel, adding that the option of growing crops for biofuel use would help alleviate the effect of recently approved EU sugar reforms, which cuts aid to farmers of sugar cane – mostly African and Caribbean producers.
Biofuels currently have only 0.6 per cent of the fuel market, far from the EU goal of 5.75 per cent by 2010.
The Commission forecasts that boosting biomass fuels will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 209 million tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent per year, create up to 300,000 jobs and cut reliance on energy imports from 48% to 42%.
It also said only 6 per cent of the EU’s total energy supply currently came from renewable resources.
