EU to toughen environment criteria for biofuels

By Paul Taylor

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is to set tougher environmental criteria for biofuels after acknowledging that the drive for transport fuels produced from crops has done unforeseen damage, the European Commission said on Monday.

Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said in a BBC interview the EU had initially underestimated the danger to rainforests and the risk of forcing up food prices from its policy of setting binding targets for the use of biofuels.

"We have seen that the environmental problems caused by biofuels and also the social problems are bigger than we thought they were. So we have to move very carefully," he said.

"We have to have criteria for sustainability, including social and environmental issues, because there are some benefits from biofuels," Dimas said.

EU leaders set a mandatory target last March that at least 10 percent of transport fuel should come from biofuels by 2020.

Dimas told the BBC it would be better to miss the target than meet it by harming poor people or damaging the environment.

EU energy spokesman Ferran Tarradellas Espuny told a news conference the Commission would stick to the 10 percent target in implementation proposals to be unveiled on January 23 because it was an obedient servant of the bloc's political masters.

"However, certainly we will do that in a way that's going to cause no damage or at least less damage than if we used fossil fuels to achieve the same target," he said.