AGL 38.99 Decreased By ▼ -0.59 (-1.49%)
AIRLINK 130.11 Decreased By ▼ -1.11 (-0.85%)
BOP 7.15 Increased By ▲ 0.34 (4.99%)
CNERGY 4.63 Decreased By ▼ -0.08 (-1.7%)
DCL 8.45 Increased By ▲ 0.01 (0.12%)
DFML 41.03 Decreased By ▼ -0.44 (-1.06%)
DGKC 81.75 Decreased By ▼ -0.34 (-0.41%)
FCCL 32.70 Decreased By ▼ -0.40 (-1.21%)
FFBL 72.32 Decreased By ▼ -0.55 (-0.75%)
FFL 12.38 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (0.98%)
HUBC 109.82 Decreased By ▼ -0.92 (-0.83%)
HUMNL 14.09 Decreased By ▼ -0.42 (-2.89%)
KEL 5.09 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-1.93%)
KOSM 7.69 Increased By ▲ 0.08 (1.05%)
MLCF 38.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.30 (-0.77%)
NBP 68.26 Increased By ▲ 4.25 (6.64%)
OGDC 190.00 Decreased By ▼ -2.82 (-1.46%)
PAEL 25.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-0.7%)
PIBTL 7.47 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (1.77%)
PPL 151.52 Decreased By ▼ -2.55 (-1.66%)
PRL 25.52 Decreased By ▼ -0.31 (-1.2%)
PTC 17.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.46 (-2.58%)
SEARL 81.35 Decreased By ▼ -0.95 (-1.15%)
TELE 7.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.42%)
TOMCL 33.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.46 (-1.37%)
TPLP 8.38 Decreased By ▼ -0.11 (-1.3%)
TREET 16.90 Increased By ▲ 0.28 (1.68%)
TRG 57.51 Increased By ▲ 0.11 (0.19%)
UNITY 28.05 Increased By ▲ 0.54 (1.96%)
WTL 1.34 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-2.19%)
BR100 10,561 Increased By 56.7 (0.54%)
BR30 31,061 Decreased By -165.4 (-0.53%)
KSE100 98,797 Increased By 717.7 (0.73%)
KSE30 30,825 Increased By 266.1 (0.87%)

A growing emphasis on reducing greenhouse gases might not be a boon for European bioethanol and could actually hurt the industry, the head of a major biofuel company said on Wednesday.
"My view is that European (bioethanol) production will only survive in a highly protectionist environment because it hasn't got the carbon credentials," Andrew Owens, chief executive officer of Britain's leading biofuels supplier Greenergy told a biofuels conference organised by F.O. Licht.
Biofuels, which are mostly made from crops such as grains and vegetable oils, are seen as a way to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gases believed to contribute to climate change. Some backers also see them as a way to increase energy security.
However, Nobel prize winning chemist Paul J. Crutzen issued a report last month saying most crops grown in the United States and Europe to make "green" transport fuels actually speed up global warming because of industrial farming methods.
Owens said future fiscal incentives and regulations would provide a greater weighting to more sustainable bioethanol -- which is not what is produced in much of Europe.
"Good sustainable biofuels will become more expensive," he said. "Bad biofuels will cease to trade in Europe and that will include a lot of European bioethanol."
"Both economics and sustainability is going to favour Brazilian and African production," Owens said, adding greater carbon savings could be achieved with crops grown in tropical zones. Greenergy, Britain's fourth largest oil company is 22 percent owned by Tesco and 15 percent by Barclays Bank.
CARBON SAVINGS:
Britain has mandated that 5 percent of all motor fuel must come from renewable sources by 2010, a measure known as the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO).
It has also ordered that all biofuel companies must report environmental impacts including carbon savings. "We will not use any European or US produced ethanol in the RTFO scheme...the numbers are not good enough," he said.
Owens said that although there was no fiscal penalty for reporting low carbon savings during the initial phase of the RTFO, corporate reputations were at risk and criticism could be expected from the green movement.
"I don't think anyone is going to survive a bad report. Our numbers will be exemplary," he said. Rob Vierhout, Secretary-General of the European Bioethanol Fuel Association, said his group believed it was enough to demonstrate greenhouse gas savings.
"We believe that of course there needs to be a greenhouse gas saving but it is not a matter of demonstrating savings of 50 percent, 60 percent. If you can demonstrate a saving then that is enough," he told the conference. Vierhout said many countries in Europe were also interested in energy security.
"What I see and that is very much a British reality is the fixation on decarbonisation," he said, adding he believed it would not be clever to replace dependence on fossil fuel imports with bioethanol imports from Brazil.
"This is a philosophy you cannot sell in France and in many other European countries. They want to be self-reliant to some extent so we will not have a totally open market," he added.
Vierhout estimated the European Union will produce about 2 billion litres of bioethanol in 2007, lagging far behind the largest producer, the United States, at 24 billion and second placed Brazil at 19 billion.

Copyright Reuters, 2007

Comments

Comments are closed.