Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I am aware of the need to strike a land balance between energy and food crops. The European Commission has indicated its awareness of general sustainability issues regarding biofuels and has signalled its intention to introduce incentives and support systems to avoid such issues. Specifically, it intends to encourage the development of "second generation" biofuels which can be produced from non-food crops or from areas that do not conflict with food production.

To this end, it is anticipated the Commission's renewable energy legislative proposals, to be published at the end of 2007, will contain targets for biofuels market penetration, subject to the introduction of sustainability criteria and the coming on stream of second-generation biofuels. The Commission also notes that European demand for biomass, especially biofuels, could contribute to improving trade relations with the European Union's trading partners, in particular developing countries, many of which have the potential to produce and export biomass and biofuels at competitive prices. It will be important to strike a careful balance to ensure the optimum outcome in terms of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in transport, providing opportunities for developing countries and, at the same time, minimising risk to food production. Ireland's biofuels obligation will take account of EU sustainability initiatives relating to biofuels and I intend to work very closely with my EU colleagues in addressing this complex challenge for biofuels policy.

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