The European Commission launched a public consultation concerning biofuels in the new legislation on the promotion of renewable energy. One of the concerns is how to obtain a 10% share of biofuels and to assure the environmental viability. This consultation follows the new energy policy for Europe, which has been recently adopted, proposing a binding 20% target for the overall share of renewable energy in 2020 and a biding 10% target for the share of biofuels in transports. This consultation will help the Commission drafting proposals to incorporate these targets in legislation.
The Commission will take into account the views of stakeholders, businesses, non-governmental organisations and other interested parties on the following questions:
- How should a biofuel sustainability system be designed?
- How should overall effects on lad use be monitored?
- How should the use of second-generation biofuels be encouraged?
- What further action is needed to make it possible to achieve a 10% biofuel share?
Contributions will be sent at latest on June 4th 2007. Public consultation on http://ec.europa.eu/energy/res/consultation/biofuels_en.htm Source : BUREAU AQUITAINE EUROPE News Letter nr. 78 April 2007
This energy issue concerns foresters on the first place, given the fact that the forest represents an important biomass of which less than 60% of the annual production is harvested at the European level. To encourage the development of a sustainable forest biomass there were two initiatives the European forest energy network (EUROFORETNET) an initiative of the Environment Directorate-General, European Commission and the INTERREG project ENERSILVA an initiative of USSE.