Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
per cent) exceeding the 2 per cent target. In terms of adoption of biofuels,
biodiesel was signii cantly ahead of ethanol - with biodiesel achieving a 1.6
per cent share of the diesel market, whereas ethanol achieved only a 0.4 per
cent share of the petrol market (European Commission, 2007b, p. 6).
The main policy instrument to facilitate meeting this target was the
EU Directive 2003/96/EC (The Council of the European Union, 2003)
on energy products taxation, which allowed Member States to reduce, or
apply total or partial exemption in the level of taxation to fuels from renew-
able sources. Moreover, schemes like Energy Crop Payments - a premium
payment of €45/ha for growing energy crops under the 2003 Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform - and allowing energy crops to be grown
on set-aside land, were thought to encourage farmers in producing energy
crops to meet the demand for biofuel feedstocks. In addition, increasing
prices of fossil fuel and insecurity of supply, particularly in the past two
to three years, either due to natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina or
due to conl icts in the Middle East and elsewhere (such as the supply dis-
putes between Russia and Ukraine or Russia and Georgia), should have
provided further incentives, in theory, to invest in, produce and promote
biofuels in the Member States. Even with these biofuel-favourable poli-
cies, and geopolitical conditions, the share of biofuels on the transport fuel
market has been negligible in most of the Member States.
The next milestone in the EU Directive 2003/30/EC on promotion of
the use of biofuels or other renewable fuels for transport is the target of
5.75 per cent - the proportion of biofuels and other renewable fuels that
should be placed on the transport fuel market by the end of the year 2010.
As in the i rst phase, most of the Member States have set their own annual
indicative targets for the second phase in the promotion of biofuels in the
transport fuel market. The indicative targets set by the 19 Member States,
if achieved, will increase the share of biofuels in the transport market to
5.45 per cent by 2010, slightly less than the 5.75 per cent target. However,
the 2006 progress report concludes, judging by the progress made by a
majority of the Member States during the i rst phase of biofuels promo-
tion in their transport fuel markets, that 'the biofuels directive's target [of
5.75 per cent] for 2010 is not likely to be achieved' (European Commission,
2007b, p. 6).
Although a number of the EU Member States have put in place 'biofuel
obligations',
3
the 2006 biofuels progress report calls for legislative meas-
ures to support the promotion of biofuels in transport in the EU, arguing
that such a legislative measure will 'send a signal of the [European] Union's
determination to reduce its dependence on oil use in transport' (European
Commission, 2007b, p. 14). The report further argues that the legislative
framework in favour of biofuels will
