EU efforts to limit the use of crop-based biofuels, increasingly seen as doing the planet more harm than good, won parliamentary backing on Thursday in what a top biodiesel company called "a very bad blow."
The vote in the European Parliament's environment committee will be followed by a plenary vote, expected in September. It will also require endorsement by EU member states, which are deeply divided on the issue.
Environmental campaigners said Thursday's vote marked progress toward more sustainable biofuels.
But biofuel producers and their suppliers are furious at the policy U-turn. They said the proposed limit of 5.5 per cent of total transport fuel use was far too low and would lead to plant closures and job losses.
Jean-Philippe Puig, CEO of Sofiproteol, which owns the EU's largest biodiesel producer Diester Industrie, said the vote "was a very bad blow."
Earlier this month Sofiproteol said it would close two units of Diester Industrie because of overcapacity.
In 2008, an EU target was introduced to get 10 per cent of transport fuel from renewable sources by 2020, most of which would come from so-called first-generation biofuels made from sugar, cereals and oilseeds.
Source: Grainews