Biofuels 'need strict standards'

Biofuels should only be produced if they meet strict environmental standards, an international group of lawmakers have concluded.

The legislators said the fuels also had to deliver significant savings of greenhouse gas emissions.

If such criteria were met, they said there should be an urgent review of the tariffs that currently block imports into markets such as the EU and US.

The forum was hosted by Brazil, one of the world's biggest biofuel producers.

Biofuels have become a highly controversial issue, with claims that the rapid expansion of energy crops could threaten global food security, and add further pressure to sensitive ecosystems including rainforests.

It is also argued that in some cases the benefits to the climate of burning plant material instead of fossil fuels are outweighed by the energy needed to produce and transport biofuels, and by the release of carbon from soils by changes in land use.

The supporters of Brazilian ethanol argue, however, that huge areas of degraded cattle pasture are available to grow the crop, and that expansion of biofuel production does not require significant conversion of native ecosystems.

The meeting also failed to agree a framework for a new global agreement on measures to tackle climate change beyond 2012, with the Chinese delegation apparently reluctant to pre-empt the position of its government in forthcoming negotiations.

Lord Jay, the former head of the British Foreign Office, who had led the efforts to agree the framework, said there had been consensus over his claim that a massive increase was needed in the funds available to poorer countries to cope with the impacts of climate change.
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