Bioenergy chief: Still stuck in ‘food vs fuel’ debate, EU is missing global biofuel trend

Countries around the world such as Brazil or India are scaling up the production of biofuels to decarbonise transport, while the EU is still stuck in the “food versus fuel” debate, the executive director of the World Bioenergy Association told EURACTIV in an interview.

“Other countries recognise the facts and opportunities biofuels provide, whereas the EU is sort of missing the trend, mainly because there’s a lot of misinformation sometimes in the EU on biofuels, but also in bioenergy in general,” WBA’s Bharadwaj Kummamuru said on the sidelines of COP27 in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt.

WBA is an international NGO and non-profit association that represents the bioenergy sector globally.

Referring to the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) report, Kummamuru stressed that Asian countries, the US, and Brazil will form a big part of the biofuel production globally.

“When you start thinking about biofuels, the first argument you hear in Europe is food versus fuel”, he said.

NGO, biofuel industry clash over vegan food from ethanol

Non-governmental organisation Transport and Environment (T&E) and the ethanol industry have clashed over the latter’s increasing interest in producing vegan food in addition to biofuel, which aims to end the long-standing “food versus fuel” argument.

Environmental NGOs have long argued that relying on crop-based biofuels leads to a hike in food prices, considering that crops are being used to fill cars’ tanks rather than feed people.

The industry, for its part, says crop-based biofuels such as ethanol are crucial in decarbonising transport, considering that the roll-out of electric cars will take many years due to high costs and relatively poor infrastructure.

To counter the “food versus fuel” argument, Kummamuru cited the example of India, where there’s an excess production of food.

“In the last national biofuels policy, they also decided to actually use grains, cereals, and excess sugar cane juice for biofuels,” he said, adding that the country has already exceeded the E10 target and now aims for E20 by 2025 – which refers to petrol containing up to 20% ethanol.

Kummamuru also said that the countries where food shortages are sometimes reported recognise that the shortage is not because of biofuels.

“It’s because of bad supply chains, not reaching the right people, they’re overproducing food in those regions. And they want to use that opportunity to produce biofuels in that country,” he added.

Kummamuru explained that in order to decarbonise transport, all available technologies should be used and biofuels in particular have an immediate effect.

“It would be pretty good to have the whole transport freight electric tomorrow, as long as electricity comes from renewable sources. But if you look at how much renewable penetration we have in the electricity sector today, still it’s only about 30-32%”, he said.

Transport is responsible for 27% of total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU and several pieces of legislation have so far failed to bring about major changes.

A third revision of the Renewable Energy Directive is underway and EU policymakers insist on a decreasing role of conventional biofuels after 2030.

For its part, the industry has urged EU policymakers to come up with a “reality check” considering that the EU executive has admitted that by 2030, oil will still drive Europe’s cars, despite the decarbonisation drive.

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The European Commission’s insistence on capping conventional biofuels is “ultra-orthodox” as it deprives farmers of a potential market outside the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) while simultaneously hindering agriculture’s environmental potential, the head of EU farmers’ association told EURACTIV in an interview.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

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