European Biofuel Policy: How Far Will Public Support Go?

Jean-Christophe Bureau, Hervé Guyomard (), Florence Jacquet and David Tréguer ()
Additional contact information
Hervé Guyomard: INRA
David Tréguer: UMR Economie Publique

Chapter Chapter 23 in Handbook of Bioenergy Economics and Policy, 2010, pp 401-423 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The strong biofuel expansion experienced in the European Union (EU) originates in the incentives set up by Member States (MSs) within a global framework provided by the EU. A significant part of the EU rapeseed production (more than half) is now channeled into the energy market. MSs support the development of biofuels through subsidies/tax exemptions, mandatory blending, and import barriers (at least for ethanol). Several motivations for supporting biofuels have been put forward. For some MSs, the motivation was clearly to increase agricultural income (e.g., in France and Germany). In other cases, biofuels (produced domestically or imported) were mainly seen as a means to abate GHG emissions. Public support for biofuels has recently been questioned. Some potentially negative effects of biofuels (most notably the indirect land use change) have fueled the debates in the EU Parliament and Commission over the adoption of the 2008 Renewable Energy Directive. These discussions have led to the adoption of less stringent mandatory incorporation targets for 2020 (with respect to the initial 2007 proposal), as the objectives are now set in terms of “renewable fuels” (i.e., biofuels, hydrogen, and green electricity). In spite of an agreement on targets for 2020, some important questions still need to be addressed. The indirect land use change triggered off by biofuel production is the most critical. The ability of the Commission to come up with a clear methodology to address this issue is a necessary condition for the enforcement of the biofuel targets.

Keywords: European Union; Common Agricultural Policy; Renewable Energy Directive; Biofuel Policy; Indirect Land (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nrmchp:978-1-4419-0369-3_23

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9781441903693

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4419-0369-3_23

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Natural Resource Management and Policy from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().