alternative energy blog

EU trade commissioner against biofuel tariff

by apasolini on July 6, 2007

The European Union trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, yesterday said he opposes tariffs on biofuels aimed at protecting European domestic markets, a position that will boost big non-EU players like Brazil.

“Biofuel policy is not ultimately an industrial policy or an agricultural policy – it is an environmental policy, driven above all by the greenest outcomes,” Mandelson said. “Europe should be open to accepting that we will import a large part of our biofuel resources. We should certainly not contemplate favoring EU production of biofuels with a weak carbon performance if we can import cheaper, cleaner biofuels.”

The EU target is that 10 per cent of vehicles will be running on biofuel by 2020.