Biofuels
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Biomass: Wood – Europe’s fuel of the future, really?
11 April 20137414 The Economist London -
Biofuels: Brussels will have to revise its policy
29 May 20121389 Respekt Prague -
Environment: Statistical fog in battle against CO2
20 April 20121334 The Guardian London -
Africa: Biofuels won’t feed the people
15 March 201211147 La Repubblica Rome -
Environment: 'Clean' energy, scourge of our countryside
18 August 20113818 La Repubblica Rome -
Germany: Biofuel E10 inflames motorists
8 March 20111PresseuropBild -
Environment : Europe devours Amazon, claims NGO
25 January 2011358PresseuropPúblico -
EUROPHRENIA: Biofuel, it’s not so cool
23 April 2010PresseuropBlog -
Renewable Energies: Technology transfer - now
12 January 2010152 NRC Handelsblad Amsterdam -
Biodiversity: Copenhagen treaty may endanger rainforests
26 October 2009PresseuropThe Independent -
Biodiversity: Copenhagen treaty may endanger rainforests
26 October 2009PresseuropThe Independent
In order to produce energy without further increasing CO2 emissions, what could be easier than using existing furnaces to burn trees that could be replaced as they are used? Although this idea has much financial backing, it is only efficient over the long term.
To achieve its CO2-emissions goals, the EU encourages biofuel crops to be grown on European farmland that once produced food. The result, though, is that the growing of the food crops is shifting to developing countries – along with the CO2 pollution and biodiversity impacts. Those unintended consequences are forcing the Commission to redraft its laws. 
The EU’s plan to reduce CO2 emissions is lauded for being the most ambitious scheme of its kind. But unclear criteria and wayward accounting put into doubt the success of steps taken so far. 
Seeking to meet new regulations on low-carbon emission fuels, Europeans are battling over millions of hectares of African land in order to grow biofuels. This is detrimental to food crop production, warn NGOs. 
Crisis-hit Italian farmers are turning to the intensive cultivation of maize for biogas production, which is more profitable than growing it for food. But they’re laying themselves open to the mercies of speculators -- and they’re threatening biodiversity too, declares the founder of the Slow Food movement. 
Instead of paying developing countries to combat global warming, it would make more sense to help them to the latest know-how, argue two Dutch researchers.