Sugarcane-based ethanol made in Brazil is of interest to the EU given the bloc's 10 percent biofuel target in transport by 2020. But rising biofuel production has helped drive up food prices and led to deforestation, according to environmentalists and UN agencies.
This has provoked second thoughts in the EU. Britain, for instance, has said it will review the environmental and economic impact of biofuels production after a parliamentary committee called for a moratorium on using them any more. At last week's European summit, the holder of the bloc's rotating presidency, Slovenia, said a revision of the goals was not being ruled out. The warnings are fairly explicit.
For example, a Nobel prize-winner claims that biodiesel from rapeseed would mean vastly more climate-tilting emissions than from fossil fuels, because of fertiliser use. Besides, a UN official last year called it a "crime against humanity" to convert food crops to fuel.
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