European Ministers Say 10% Target is For Renewable Fuels, Not Just Biofuel
07 July 2008
Reuters. After a three-day meeting over the weekend in Paris, European Union ministers said that what had been taken as an increasingly controverisal 10% target for biofuels alone in transportation fuel by 2020 was actually a 10% target for all renewable fuels.
Though no concrete changes were made to proposed biofuel legislation, ministers said the EU had failed to properly communicate plans to get 10 percent road transport fuels from renewable sources, such as biofuels, by 2020.
French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo...said the EU had to make clear it could also include electric vehicles recharged using green electricity or powered by hydrogen—nascent technologies that while virtually non-existent today could play a vital role by 2020.
Ministers also said that the quota might be changed. EU lawmaker Claude Turmes told Reuters on Friday he had broad parliamentary backing to propose changing the target to 4% renewables in road transport fuels by 2015.
One-fifth of those renewable fuels would have to be either second generation biofuels or electric vehicles, and there would be a major review in 2015 to decide whether to move towards an 8 to 10 percent target in 2020, he added.
An 8 to 10 percent target for all renewable fuels in 2020? This is a pitiful pittance of a goal. It's is equivalent to setting a goal of 10% literacy for education, or a 10% cure rate for medicine.
We have the technology to do better and DEMAND a far more ambitious goal ... Try 100% renewables as soon as they can be built. Anything less is greenwash fluff.
Posted by: | 07 July 2008 at 08:53 AM
This will not be a "green" issue by 2020, but an issue of fuel availability--period. It's likely world petroleum production will have fallen substantially more than 10% by then.
These pathetic targets will be laughed at as a historical footnote. By then everyone will understand the gravity of the situation. Economics will force us off oil long before politicians get the political will to do the right thing.
Posted by: BlackSun | 07 July 2008 at 09:43 AM
10% target including electric vehicles? It is a real joke.
How do we know if the electricity that we use to charge our electric vehicles is GREEN, Mr. Jean-Louis Borloo?
Or these ministers are simply passing the ball from transport sector to the heat and power sector.
Posted by: HC | 07 July 2008 at 09:47 AM
If 10% is their best target, then get us the PHEVs now
whose Genset runs on renewables. A PHEV will use much
less. We need incentives to get the gas guzzlers off
the road now! How about a tax-credit when we buy a PHEV
when/if allow them to crush our ICE-V?
Posted by: swen | 07 July 2008 at 10:54 AM
BlackSun: These pathetic targets will be laughed at as a historical footnote.
Successophobia: set the bar low enough and even a politician can claim success while failing.
"Economics will force us off oil long before politicians get the political will to do the right thing."
Who cares? I mean, seriously, who cares if the government is increasingly irrelevant?
Posted by: | 07 July 2008 at 11:46 AM
That's what happens with 27+ countries around the same table.
Meaningless decisions is often the only ones to get a passing vote.
Higer fuel price + electrified vehicles will do much more without politicians having to get wet.
Posted by: HarveyD | 07 July 2008 at 04:26 PM
The EU should state explicitly that any fuels derived from and/or made with entirely non-fossil carbon are counted as renewable fuels.
Posted by: richard schumacher | 08 July 2008 at 06:24 AM
Pssst... Just for this little computer simpulation, let's pretend that cellulosic, organic and inorganic waste to energy processes DO NOT EXIST!! That way, we don't have to work at all to make our virtual world realistic!!
Posted by: Sulleny | 08 July 2008 at 10:04 AM