Pressure grew today for a re-think of plans to increase the use of biofuels when MEPs voted to slash the proposed EU target.

MEPs called for the goal of 10 per cent of all road transport fuel in Europe to come from biofuels by 2020 to be revised after an outcry from environmental groups that the measure, aimed at cutting CO2 emissions, would be counter-productive.

The MEPs still want 10 per cent of road fuels to come from renewable sources but voted for 40 per cent of that (ie 4 per cent of the total) to come from second-generation biofuels, electricity or hydrogen from renewable sources, leaving 6 per cent of the total from traditional biofuels.

The original proposals from the European Commission were attacked soon after they were unveiled last year because of fears that land used for cereal crops would be switched to biomass, leading to food shortages, or that rainforest would be cleared to help meet the target. The final decision rests with ministers from the 27 EU nations later this year.

Environmental groups today welcomed the vote of the European Parliament’s Industry and Energy Committee.

Kenneth Richter, Friends of the Earth biofuels campaigner, said: “It is great news that Euro MPs are waking up to the fact that biofuels are doing more harm than good — but they must go further and scrap these targets altogether.

“To reduce our dangerous dependence on fossil fuels, Euro MPs must back real transport solutions, like making car companies double the fuel efficiency of new vehicles by 2020.

“The UK Government must now reconsider its own biofuels policy, which is driving up food prices and leading to rainforest destruction in countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.”

Oxfam said that the proposals should have been dropped entirely rather than just scaled back. Rob Bailey, Oxfam’s biofuels policy adviser, said: “While it could have gone further and dropped biofuels from the renewable energy directive altogether, the European Parliament has made important progress.

“It is now up to member states to follow the Parliament’s lead and to place the needs of poor people and the environment before those of powerful industrial and agricultural lobbies.”

The alarm was raised in a series of scientific reports last year which said that the target of 10 per cent of petrol and diesel from renewable sources by 2020 was less effective in curbing carbon emissions than a programme of restoring forests and protecting plant habitats.

The impact of the switch, they warned, would be higher food prices and rainforest destruction.

Experts said that EU governments should only endorse a biofuels policy that could be proven to cut carbon emissions.

One report said that the quantity of CO2 absorbed by forests over 30 years would be “considerably greater” than the emissions avoided by using biofuels resulting from destroying those rainforests.

Britain’s targets for biofuels are set out in the “Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation” published in April. It sets a goal of producing 2.5 per cent of the fuel supplied for road transport in 2008-9 from biofuels, doubling to 5 per cent in 2010-11.

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