European Parliament ENVI Committee organises workshop on sustainability criteria for biofuels

Late last year, the European Parliament's Environment Committee adopted a first-reading report on the Commission's proposal to review the Fuel Quality Directive, which is aimed at lowering transportation fuels' environmental and health impact as well as to take into account new EU-wide targets on biofuels and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. On March 3, the European Council is likely to achieve a political agreement with regards to the revision. A week later, March 10, a first reading vote in the Parliament's plenary could see the adoption of the Directive if MEPs and member states succeed in agreeing on a common text.

European Parliament rapporteur MEP Dorette Corbey and shadow rapporteurs for the Fuel Quality Directive have decided that it is indeed worth the effort to enter into these first reading negotiations with the European Council. There is, however, one political issue that deserves full attention of the different committees, they feel: sustainability criteria for biofuels.

Recent scientific evidence suggests that the CO2 efficiency of some first generation biofuels is problematic, in particular if land use changes are taken into account (previous post). The vote in the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) approves sustainability criteria, including land use changes. Meanwhile the European Commission has presented its own proposal on renewable energies which contains sustainability criteria, although they are less stringent than the ones included in the ENVI-decision.

The European Parliament ENVI Committee, the TAUW Consulting and Engineering Company together with the EP's ENVI Committee Secretariat and the EP's Policy Department A will therefor be organising a workshop on "Sustainability criteria for biofuels".

The event is set to take place Tuesday 4 March 2008 in the European Parliament, Brussels. Participation in the workshop is free of charge and open to all, but requires registration beforehand. The programme looks as follows:
energy :: biofuels :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: social sustainability :: environmental sustainability :: greenhouse gas emissions :: land use change :: European Commission :: European Parliament ::

Part 1: The Institutional context
15:10 - Representative of the Slovenian Presidency
15:20 - Representative of the European Commission

Part 2: Panel of experts

General introduction - Technical aspects of sustainability criteria
15:30 - Greg Archer (LowCVP - Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership)

Criteria related to CO2 efficiency/saving and land use change
15:40 - Robert Edwards (Joint Research Centre, Italy, speaker to be confirmed)
15:50 - Bas Eickhout (MNP, Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency)
16:00 - Debate: Questions and answers session

Criteria related to biodiversity and water
16:30 - Ms Berien Elbersen (Wageningen University and Research Center, Netherlands)
16:40 - Rothamsted Centre for Bio-energy and Climate Change, UK (to be confirmed)
16:50 - Debate: Questions and answers session

Criteria related to social issues
17:20 - Neil Judd (ProForest, UK)
17:30 - Debate: Questions and answers session

Part 3: Conclusions
18:00 - Closing remarks – Rapporteur MEP Ms Dorette CORBEY and Shadow Rapporteurs

Registration ends by Tuesday 26 February 2008. Interested parties that do not have a permanent entrance accreditation for the European Parliament should contact TAUW's organisers (address below) and provide them with your date of birth and nationality.

For further information and registration, please contact:
Jurgen Ooms
TAUW
P.O. Box 133
7400 AC Deventer
The Netherlands
Jurgen.Ooms [ at ] tauw.nl
Tel. +31 570 699 808
Fax +31 570 699 666

References:
EurActiv: The review of the EU's Fuel Quality Directive - Link Dossier.