EU weakens its climate change targets

Not long ago the European Union set a variety of different sectors strict targets in order to reduce carbon emissions.

These targets were intended to slow down climate change, as well as make for a more healthy and less dangerous atmosphere.

Although some targets have remained the same, for example the amount of food crops that can be used to make fuel, others have been reduced.

Proposals to reduce the indirect climate impact of biofuels have been weakened.

With the original proposal, fuel suppliers were to be held accountable for the amount of indirect emissions biofuels used by them gave off.

Under the new legislation, fuel suppliers will not be responsible for the indirect emissions biofuels cause by displacing food production into new areas.

This may be a surprise to environmental activists, as the affect of this procedure can he huge.

"When biofuels are produced on existing agricultural land, the demand for food and feed crops remains, and may lead to someone producing more food and feed somewhere else," the European Commission states.

"This can imply land use change (by changing e.g. forest into agricultural land), which implies that a substantial amount of CO2 emissions are released into the atmosphere."

The statement also goes on to explain why the alterations to the original agreement have come about - stating that some biofuels are "much better than others" and "unless action is taken now, they are not likely to be available in any significant amounts in 2020".

Some people have claimed that they think this change will be costly for Europe - with people investing their money elsewhere as there will be very little of a biofuel industry left in the continent.

The new proposal will be brought forward next Wednesday.

It may take up to two years to come into effect.