Pressure is being put on the European Union for tougher standards for biofuel production, ahead of the publication of draft legislation on biofuels next week.

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Two European commissioners have also now voiced concerns about the sustainability of legislation to introduce mandatory targets. Stavros Dimas told the BBC earlier this week that the environmental and social problems of biofuels are bigger than the EU thought they were. EU development commissioner, Louis Michel, said last week that he supported a call from the UN for a moratorium on targets for the increased of biofuels.


According to a report in the New York Times yesterday, the draft legislation will address concerns over the sustainability of biofuels and proposals will include a requirement on a minimum level of greenhouse gas savings. Because of transportation and refining, some biofuels deliver very little greenhouse gas savings.


The New York Times says the proposals could mean a ban on biofuels grown on certain kinds of land, such as forests and grasslands. At the moment most European biofuels come from rapeseed, but Europe also imports some palm oil from south east Asia and ethanol from Brazil. Some ethanol is also produced from home grown wheat and sugar beet. The imports from Asia and South America could be banned.


Critics of biofuels targets that do not discriminate between types of biofuels now include certain United Nations representatives, and esteemed scientific institutes including the Royal Society in Britain and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Insititute in Washington.

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European Commissioners meet on 23 January to adopt a final draft version of the legislation.