In a move to ease competition with food production and promote the development of fuels from non-food sources, the European Parliament voted to limit the use of crop-based biofuels in ground transportation to 6%. This vote amends a 5% cap proposed by the European Commission last year. The vote also called for 2.5% of fuel for ground transportation come from second generation sources such as farm and industrial waste. The vote is the result of the attempt by the EU to prevent a requirement that at least 10% of transportation fuel come from renewable sources by 2020 causing harm by displacing food production through indirect land use changes. There is a concern that the conversion of forest and peatland which both store CO2 into cropland would release the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.
To receive relevant news stories with summaries provided by GAI Research & Insight, subscribe to Global AgDevelopments, our free bi-weekly enhanced eNews service