Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-09-24-Speech-1-088"
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"en.20070924.16.1-088"2
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"Mr President, the Thomsen report rightly advocates a vigorous approach to ensuring that renewable sources make up a major proportion of our total energy use. Fossil fuels are after all finite and the use of renewables reduces the amount of greenhouse gases generated. It also creates the diversification we need in order to reduce our dependence on just one or two energy sources. I am fully behind the rapporteur when she says that biofuels must be used in a responsible way only. The EU must work towards international agreements which will ensure that sustainability criteria can be applied to biofuels within the context of the WTO. It matters very much what kind of biofuel we use, how it is grown and how it is used. Biofuels are only sustainable if the whole cycle from producer to user has the lowest possible impact on the environment. This means that biomass must be not only produced sustainably but also burned sustainably. In production, that means that crops must be replanted after harvesting. In combustion it means, for example, that the emission standard must be just as strict as for other fuels.
More extensive strategic choices are also required in the face of undesirable effects like the depletion of virgin forest and the competing imperative of food supply. In poor countries, especially, biomass production puts pressure on agricultural land and pushes up food prices. What specific policy measures does the Commission envisage to eliminate these undesirable effects?
Lastly, the rapporteur wants proper account to be taken of the differing circumstances of the Member States. But one Member State has a greater potential for exploiting solar energy, whilst another is more likely to be able to harness wind energy. So a harmonised system, of the kind which the report envisages for the longer term, is no obvious matter. A system of support is most effective when it is geared to those energy sources with the greatest potential and that, Mr President, differs from one Member State to the next."@en1
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