Biofuels have key role in energy mix, hears Parliament
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The REA has called for a "a consistent regulatory environment."
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22/02/2012
Biofuels grown in the UK are amongst the most “environmentally sound” in the world, and have a "key role to play" in the UK’s energy mix, the Renewables Energy Association (REA) and other industry stakeholders told Parliament’s Energy and Climate Change Committee yesterday (Tuesday).
The one-off bioenergy evidence session (see video below) addressed a number of key questions, including:
• How can the UK ensure that the use of biofuels is sustainable and leads to a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions?
• What are the impacts of emissions associated with direct and indirect land-use change?
• If the EU can only meet its renewables target by importing biofuels, what effects does this have on countries that grow the feedstock and export it?
• How well-positioned is UK industry to take advantage of the development of bioenergy?
According to the REA, witnesses told the Committee that UK policy has encouraged some market development, especially the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) and the mandating of sustainability standards. However, “both of these need to go further”, it warned.
“… the RTFO only takes us to 5 per cent transport from renewable sources by 2020 (the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) requires 10 per cent by 2020 across all EU Member States), and UK producers well exceed the sustainability requirements mandated to date,” the association said in a statement.
“There is an urgent need to decarbonise transport… in the short to medium term, a consistent regulatory environment supporting both conventional and advanced biofuel production is absolutely essential to getting us there,” it added.
REA Head of Renewable Transport Clare Wenner said:
“We showed back in 2009 that the EU and UK could achieve 80 per cent of the RED-mandated 10 per cent renewable transport target using domestically produced biofuels from current technologies. While the noise around biofuels has become more and more confusing, the benefits have become more and more apparent.
"UK industry wants to make a contribution to the economy and the environment – but it needs clear signals from government about its commitment to the sector, and a clear trajectory to 2020. Hopefully this session will help the government make these choices.”
The Energy and Climate Change Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and its associated public bodies.
Witnesses
At 10.15am, 21 February, Thatcher Room, Portcullis House
David Kennedy, The Committee on Climate Change (CCC)
Duncan MacQueen, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
Harry Huyton, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)
Dr Alena Buyx, Nuffield Council on Bioethics
At 11.15am
Dr David Clarke, Energy Technologies Institute
Dr Jeremy Tomkinson, NNFCC-National Centre for Biorenewable Energy, Fuels and Materials
David Knibbs, Vireol
James Primrose, British Petroleum (BP)
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