Main points relating to bioenergy in the Strategic Energy Review,
published by European Commissioners yesterday:

1. Whilst there will be a general EU-wide target of 20% of all
primary energy coming from renewables by 2020, there will be no
specific mandatory targets for either nations or different sectors
(eg electricity production or heating and cooling).

2. There will be a binding minimum target of 10% of all vehicle fuels
coming from biofuels by 2020. This target will be mandatory on all
member states. This means that biofuels are the ONLY "renewable"
sector and technology which is supported with a mandatory target.

3. All biofuels will count towards the target, no matter whether they
are linked to CO2 emissions, or whether they are produced
sustainably. Calls for mandatory certification (made by many
European NGOs) have been rejected, though this option is to
be 'studied' in the longer term. There will be incentives for the
use of 'sustainable' biofuels and for second-generation biofuels,
though no details have been published as yet.

4. Commissioners recommend the abolition or lowering of tarriffs on
ethanol (currently 45%) - those on biodiesel and straight vegetable
oil are already between 0 and 5%.

5. The report states that it is anticipated that ethanol demand will
be met mainly from European cereals and imported sugar cane, and
later from cellulosic ethanol from straw and waste, and that
biodiesel demand will be met mainly by domestic and imported rapeseed
oil, complimented by soy and palm oil, and later by Fisher-Tropsch
biodiesel from farmed wood. It also anticipates an increase in the
amount of wood, energy crops and waste used for electricity
production.

What next:

There will be a series of debates by the Foreign Affairs Ministers'
Council between January and March, culminating in an Action Plan on
5th/6th March.

There will be another debate and vote in the European Parliament
before March.

An EU summit on 8th/9th March has been arranged to make the final
decision on the Action Plan.

Responses so far:

The Strategic Energy Review covers climate change targets and the
entire energy sector and most of the press releases issued yesterday
do not focus on biofuels.

However, the Transport and Environment Forum have condemned the
biofuel plans as a 'blunt instrument':
http://www.transportenvironment.org/Article350.html

There has been a very welcoming response on a Biofuel Industry
website (http://www.biofuelreview.com/content/view/722/2/), but very
critical responses from the European Renewable Energy Council. This
supports my reading of the Energy Review as being bad news for the
renewable sector overall.

Greenpeace, WWF and the European Greens have focused on inadequate
climate change targets, lack of instruments to support clean
technologies and lack of a sustainable transport strategy in their
initial responses (understandable given the context of yesterday's
announcement, I think).

Almuth Ernsting