A group of developing countries appears set to threaten legal action against the European Union’s plans to apply sustainability restrictions to the import of
biofuels, Reuters reports.
A huge market for plant-based fuels is set to grow in the EU, which set a target in 2007 to supply 10 per cent of all transport fuels across the 27-nation bloc with renewable fuel sources by 2020, and 5.75 per cent by 2010.
However, rising international concern over the sustainability of biofuel production, especially in the developing world, has since forced the European Commission to propose a set of environmental and social safeguards. These are designed to prevent the clearing of rainforests and wetlands, and the squeezing out of food crops on existing agricultural land, to make way for biofuel crops.
Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Malawi, Mozambique, Sierra Leone, Indonesia and Malaysia say the import restrictions amount to trade barriers. Their ambassadors to the EU have drafted a joint letter, which Reuters claims to have seen, saying the safeguards “impose unjustifiably complex requirements” on producer nations.
They say the restrictions would prevent the opening up of “undeveloped arable land” in their countries for much needed agricultural industry. The letter raises the possibility of action in the World Trade Organisation.
The safeguards still have to win the approval of the EU Parliament and EU member governments before they are imposed.
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