EU biofuels target raises ethical controversy

The Nuffield Bioethics Committee of the United Kingdom recently stated that the EU’s biofuels target is not in conformity with the ethical standards. Therefore, it proposes to temporarily cancel the European biofuels and export targets and restrict development until new safeguard measures are in place.

The British National Broadcasting Corporation reported that the committee stated that the development of new fuel technologies could not be at the cost of damaging the environment or competing with the grain, so cellulose biofuel technology should be developed. However, the development of new biofuels is too slow and the cost of the next generation of biofuels is too high. The committee hopes that the British government will take more measures to encourage the reduction of land, fertilizers and pesticides used in biofuel production.

The Nuffield Bioethics Committee, as an independent research organization, has been established for more than 20 years and has been committed to ethical issues in the development of biology and medicine.

The development of biofuel industrialization has brought many problems. For example, clearing forests or ploughs for planting fuel crops has damaged biodiversity, the conversion energy of biofuels is too low, fuel imports from countries with lower environmental targets, and food prices have risen.

In the past 18 months, the committee has been paying attention to EU's renewable energy guidelines. As one of the strategies to deal with climate change, the European Union proposes that by 2020, the proportion of biofuels must account for 10% of transport fuel. At present, biofuels account for 3% of the UK's road transport fuel, and only one-third of the fuel can meet the 2009/2010 environmental standards.

The committee issued a report stating that the development of biofuels must comply with the following principles: not at the expense of **; environmental sustainability; contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions; compliance with fair trade principles; These principles need to be backed by an EU certification system that is mandatory and ensures strict enforcement.

Professor Joyce Tait, scientific director of the Innogen Center at the Economic and Social Research Council of the University of Edinburgh, said: “The current EU biofuels policy is inappropriate at this stage and it is not ethical. We need to establish a new ethical standard based on strict certification to improve the production of biofuels."

Tate also said: "There is indeed a lot of conflict between biofuels and food crops. These conflicts are usually based on food price increases as a solution and are not directly controllable. But according to the certification system we envisage, we should be able to control and avoid similar competition."

Tate acknowledged that the current technology cannot meet the diversification of land-use needs, but in the face of the problems caused by climate change and the demand caused by population growth, "We will have to raise the level of science and technology."

Another participant in the report, Ottoline Leyser, professor of plant development at the Sainsbury Laboratory at Cambridge University, pointed out: “We must have sustainable food and fuel supplies. Production of food also requires Fuel, so fuel must be considered as part of ecosystem balance and biodiversity.”

Critics believe that it is not realistic enough to hope that the certification system and purely technical solutions are not realistic. Kenneth Richter, a biofuels expert at Friends of the Earth, said: “The government must decisively abandon the biofuels target and focus on developing greener cars, better public transport, and faster and cheaper. On the railway service and encourage everyone to ride bikes and walk.”

Robert Palgrave of the Biofuels Observatory supports the above report. He believes that the biofuel certification system will ensure that agricultural land will not be invaded.

Palgrave said: "We will pay close attention to indirect land utilization. In the EU, if we do not stop the use of crop fuels, the situation may be even worse." The scientific calculation of the net effect of crop fuels on the climate, because the indirect effects cannot Simple calculation. For example, the interaction between speculation and land prices, the impact of biofuels on infrastructure such as road ports near forests, the impact of policy changes on land rights, and the interrelationships between biodiversity, ecosystems, and climate.