The European Parliament’s environment committee have supported proposal 43-26, with one abstention. With this, the food crops based renewable fuel would be brought down to 5.5% of total consumption.
Production of bio-fuels from the crops such as rapeseed, palm oil and sugar cane has driven the rise in the prices of the commodities, raising a contentious issue.
Responding to the European Parliament Environment Committee decision, industry body Renewable Energy Association (REA) has claimed that the decision was a disappointing one for the UK biofuel industry.
REA renewable transport head Clare Wenner said that the move would aid the dominance of fossil fuels in the transport industry, besides reducing the investments in improving agricultural yields and practices.
These final proposals are a conceptually flawed attempt to force European biofuel developers to pay for the assumed emissions of other industries in other regions of the world. They will put committed investments in agricultural biofuels and future investments in advanced biofuels at extreme risk across Europe – as well as all the jobs that go with them," added Wenner.
"So-called green campaigners have well and truly shot themselves in the foot with this pyrrhic victory."
Following the approval from environmental committee, the European Parliament is scheduled to vote in September 2013.
