EU WARNS BRAZIL ON THE IMPACT OF BIOFUELS - by Jonathan Stearns
The European Union said Brazil must protect farms and forests at home to pry open biofuel markets abroad, seeking to prevent a clean-air campaign from causing land damage. Brazil, a pioneer in developing biofuels including ethanol, is counting on export growth as Europe, the U.S. and Asia try to reduce the use of higher-polluting oil. The EU wants biofuels, made from crops such as sugar and grain, to make up 10 percent of transport fuel by 2020 from a planned 5.75 percent in 2010.
``We can't allow the switch to biofuels to become an environmentally unsustainable stampede in the developing world,'' EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told a conference today in Brussels. ``Europeans won't pay a premium for biofuels if the ethanol in their car is produced unsustainably by systematically burning fields after harvests. Or if it comes at the expense of rainforests.''
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