Biofuels
Biofuels for transport are a group of technologies, both new and existing, that environmental civil society and policy makers on both sides of the Atlantic are trying to get to grips with. The policy framework under development today is fundamental to ensuring that positive environmental and socio-economic impacts are maximised and the negative impacts of biofuel production are minimised. The EU recently reaffirmed its commitment with a more stringent, mandatory target for the use of biofuels as transport fuel, contained in proposals from the European Commission. Additionally, there are efforts to incorporate targets for life cycle greenhouse gas emission reductions into legislation on fuel quality. The debate in the US is also very active, where there is considerable momentum driven by political leaders pushing for energy legislation addressing energy security concerns.
The issue of standards for biofuel development to ensure their sustainable production is both a global and a domestic debate with many approaches being developed. A transatlantic dialogue on this offers an opportunity to revisit the issues and pull together a more common understanding of what is practical, possible and desirable.
Other issues to be discussed include different development pressures and the impact of biofuels on broader transport and climate change policy developments.
Publications
For further details see T-PAGE Publications.