G20 pressures US, pressured by NGOs on biofuels targets, taxes

In France, G20 agriculture ministers are meeting for the first time this week to discuss food security issues and campaigners Oxfam are pushing for countries to drop their biofuel targets in order to reduce pressure on food resources. They want to see subsidies eliminated as well as the mandates. The French agriculture minister says that biofuels are a very sensitive subject while the US agriculture secretary has vowed to protect biofuels mandates and subsidies.

In France, agriculture ministers from the G20 are putting heavy pressure on the US to drop its ethanol blending credit, saying that promoting domestic use of biofuels isn’t in itself a bad thing but that using trade policy to do so goes against the spirit of the law. The EU still plans to keep its biofuel blending targets for 2020.