European Union intends to review its plans concerning switching cars to use of biofuel, as a result of rising world food prices and in face of the new ecological problems.

According to Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas, EU plans to fail in fulfillment of the target plan that foresees 10% share of biofuel in car fuel.

European Commission did not expect that its appeal to the industries to switch to the biofuel would cause so many negative consequences. Latest research shows that growing biofuel production can cause annihilation of tropical forests, considerate rise in food prices, as well as a worldwide deficit of cultivation areas.

Besides, some arts of biofuel almost do not decrease emission of dioxide carbon in the atmosphere, although previously believed otherwise. 80% of EU biofuel is produced from rape, most countries import it from Brazil and USA, where biofuel is being produced from maize, soy and sugar cane.

One of the reasons for the last year’s price explosion for food products in the whole world, that resulted in high inflation rates in many countries, was increase in biofuel production in a number of countries in the world. USA used 80 mln tons of maize for ethanol production in 2007 (more than a quarter of total crops), Brazil used almost half of its sugar cane production. A part of the cultivation areas former used for alimentary purposes, have switched to biofuel crops production.

According to calculations of experts from Minnesota University, if cultivation crops will be transferred further for biofuel purposes at a similar rate, the number of hungry people in the world will grow from several hundreds million to 1,2 billion by 2025.  However, according to the Organization for Alimentation and Agriculture, growth of biofuel use can help diversify agriculture and forestry and will forge creation of work places in developing countries, due to introduction of new land for agricultural use (for example, in African countries). World bioethanol production will reach 50 Mio liters, 45% of this amount being produced by Brazil and the same amount accounts for the US production.

Source: "Ekonomicheskie Izvestiya"