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Agronegocios y Agroenergía

Noticias del mercado argentino y mundial de biocombustibles

Unión Europea repiensa planes para biocombustibles (en inglés)
14 de enero de 2008

Recently, the EU admitted that it failed to foresee problems related to its policy encouraging motorists in Europe to drive vehicles run on biofuels. Stavros Dimas , the EU's environmental commissioner, told the BBC that the bloc would rethink new rules boosting the production of biofuels amidst growing criticism and concern.

Last week, a non-governmental coalition of groups sent a letter to the EU Energy Commissioner Andreas Piebalgs asking him to introduce tougher standards for biofuels production or give up currently planned targets.

They argued that the legislation does not provide protection for important ecosystems that may be threatened by the biofuel target.

"Destruction of these carbon sinks would lead to large emissions of carbon into the atmosphere, thereby reducing or neutralizing the benefits from growing biofuels. Neither does the draft text provide any safeguards to protect water and soil resources," the letter stated.

Dimas admitted that the environmental impact and the effect on poor communities would be greater than previously thought. He noted that the biofuel target will have to be reexamined and told the BBC that the commission would have to tread carefully, commenting “We have to have criteria for sustainability, including social and environmental issues, because there are some benefits from biofuels.”

Experts had worried that if the EU only used a numerical target for fuel, makers would focus on cutting emissions as cheaply as possible and make biofuels from food crops by processes that resulted in more negative effects for the environment, like deforestation, food hikes or water shortages.

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Fuente: RTT News