Biofuel project approved in EU

The European Union (EU) has granted approval to seven sustainability schemes for biofuels, a move heralded as a "big step" towards greener transport.

European commissioner for energy, Gunther Oettinger, confirmed that seven voluntary certification schemes have been given the go ahead.

This means that the organisations behind the projects will have to illustrate that their biofuels produce at least 35 per cent less emissions than petrol and that the crops are produced in a sustainable way in order to protect rainforest and sensitive ecosystems.

However, the plans have received a mixed reaction, with a number of Non-Government Organisations (NGOs)criticising the lack of definition and transparency in the scheme.

"According to an International Food Policy Research Institute study for the European Commission, 16 per cent of lands converted because of the biofuels policy will come from grasslands and savannah," said Nusa Urbancic, biofuels policy officer for green NGO Transport & Environment.

"If there is no definition, how can we know which kinds of grasslands should be converted?" she asked EurActiv.

Meanwhile, Friends of the Earth and several other environmental NGOs are continuing to pursue court action against the European Commission, claiming that it had withheld information about voluntary certification schemes.