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10/6/07

IPS: ENERGY - Report Challenges EU Subsidies for Biofuels

For the complete report from IPS click on this link

ENERGY - Report Challenges EU Subsidies for Biofuels

The European Union's support for biofuels may not be the most cost-effective way for the 27-country bloc to tackle climate change, a new study has concluded. Last year EU governments spent at least 3.7 billion euros (5.2 billion dollars) on subsidising biofuel production. Such support is likely to grow in the coming years because the Union has set a strategy of raising the quantity of road fuel generated from biofuels from its present level of 2 percent to 10 percent by 2010. But the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in Geneva has queried if allocating large amounts of public funds to biofuels is desirable.

In a study published Oct. 3, it calculates that the cost of using ethanol from sugar beet to avoid emitting one tonne of carbon dioxide (CO2) -- the main gas blamed for climate change -- ranges from slightly less than 600 euros to 800 euros (760 dollars to 1,000 dollars).

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