Communication - European Commission Biofuels Progress Report

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Biofuels Progress Report: Report on the progress made in the use of biofuels and other renewable fuels in the Member States of the European Union, COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE COUNCIL AND THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, Brussels, COM(2006) 845 final, 10.1.2007.

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This report considers the use of biofuels for transport in Europe and reaches the following conclusions:

• In relation to the test defined in Article 4(2) of the biofuels directive, the reasons that the biofuels directive's target for 2010 is not likely to be achieved cannot be described as 'justified' or as 'related to new scientific evidence'.
• Council and Parliament can be confident that increased biofuel use will bring substantial security of supply and greenhouse gas benefits. Increased biofuel use is the only means at present available to reduce the transport sector's near-complete dependence on oil , and one of the few ways to make a significant impact on transport's greenhouse gas emissions.
• To send a clear signal of its plans to reduce its dependence on oil use in transport, the Union needs to take a new step forward in its policies for biofuel promotion.
• The greenhouse gas benefits of biofuel policy can be further increased, and environmental risks minimised, through a simple system of incentives/support that, for instance, discourages the conversion of land with high biodiversity value for the purpose of cultivating biofuel feedstocks; discourages the use of bad systems for biofuel production; and encourages the use of second-generation production processes. The system should be designed to avoid any discrimination between domestic production and imports and should not act as a barrier to trade. Its impacts should be assessed and its operation should be monitored with a view to making it more sophisticated in future.
• This system should be designed in a way that does not reduce security of supply benefits. These flow from diversity of energy sources, biomass types and import regions. Therefore, the system should not favour one biofuel type or crop rather than another. Instead, it should encourage environmentally benign biofuel production practice across all biofuel types and crops, including in third countries.