European Council revises sugarbeet ethanol GGEs, qualifying it for EU biofuel targets

In Brussels, the European Council released new figures for greenhouse gas emission reductions, projecting that sugar beet ethanol achieves a 52 percent reduction in emissions compared to conventional gasoline. The new figure is up 17 points from the 35 percent figure in the European Commission’s original figures, and brings ethanol over the 45 percent threshold that would allow ethanol to apply towards the EU 10 percent biofuel target set for 2020.

Biodiesel producers and environmental groups complained that there was no transparency in the recalculations, and environmentalists also complained that the EC is not taking indirect land use change impacts into consideration.

Free Subscription to the Daily Biofuels Digest e-newsletter

Related Stories

European Biodiesel Board says 35% increase in biodiesel production in ‘08 not fast enough to support EU 2020 mandate

In Belgium, the European Biodiesel Board said that European production of biodiesel, which grew 35.7 per cent last year to 7.7 million metric tons primarily due to rapid increases in France, is not ex...

Energy Information Administration releases 2030 international outlook; European biodiesel association revises ‘08 forecast

Two key projections were released yesterday. The new International Energy Outlook to 2030 was released by the US Energy Information Administration that showed biofuel production doubling by 2030 while...

UK orders biofuels impact review; Greenpeace calls for moratorium; European Federation for Transport and Environment calls for abandonment of EU targets, as Science magazine article reaction continues

In reaction to articles published last week in Science magazine, the UK government has ordered a revised analysis review on biofuels, but reconfirmed a biofuels target of 2.5% of transportation fuel b...

European watchdog groups award three biofuel lobbying efforts “Worst EU Lobbying 2008″ award

The Corporate Europe Observatory, Friends of the Earth Europe, Lobbycontrol and Spinwatch together voted the "Worst EU Lobbying 2008" to biofuel lobbyists from  Abengoa Bioenergy, the Malyasian Palm ...

Europe’s Industrial Ethanol Association calls for closing of EU customs loopholes

In Germany, the head of the Industrial Ethanol Association (IEA) repeated its call for the European Commission to close customs loopholes which give heavily-subsidised ethanol producers in countries l...

European Commission reportedly considering biofuel crop subsidy cut

The European Commission (EC) is planning to cut biofuels crop subsidies, according to Sega. The program of 45 euro per hectare subsidies was initiated when 310,000 hectares had been devoted to biofuel...