By Anne-France White - 22nd July 2007
The EU’s consumption of biofuel went up dramatically in 2006, according to new figures.
A report published by EurObserv’ER, a renewable industry consortium, says biofuel use in the EU went up 78 per cent from 2005 to 2006 – from 3m to 5.38m tonnes.
Germany is by far the EU’s biggest biofuel consumer: with a total consumption of 3,343,700 tonnes in 2006, it is far ahead of runners-up France (682,000 tonnes) and Austria (275,200 tonnes).
The report says this is due to “the explosion of vegetable oil consumption in Germany, which considers this product as a fully-fledged fuel”.
The majority of the biofuel boom is made up of biodiesels which are much more prevalent than bioethanol, according to the figures.
But in spite of the EU-wide increase, the report warns that “a significant number of countries shall not reach the threshold as set by the directive (5.75 per cent biofuel share of total consumption in 2010)”.
The EU’s biofuel directive calls EU member states to boost their use of biofuels in the next few years as a way to cut CO2 emissions and help decrease Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels.
But environmental organisations are warning that biofuels are not a silver bullet for the transport sector, and could trigger environmental damage if they are developed without safeguards.
NGOs including Friends of the Earth and WWF say there is a danger that production could be intensified at the expense of forests and wildlife.
There are also concerns that the monoculture of biofuels in Europe could lead to a rise in food prices as biofuels replace food crops.
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