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Brussels announced a rethink of its plans to promote energy crops as
scientists warned some biofuels could be more damaging to the atmosphere than
fossil fuels.
Stavros Dimas, European Environment Commissioner, admitted the EU had
underestimated the dangers of causing food shortages of rainforest destruction
by dictating a binding target for 10 per cent of all EU road fuels to come from
"green" sources by 2020.
"We have seen that the environmental problems caused by biofuels and also the
social problems are bigger than we thought they were. So we have to move very
carefully," he said.
advertisementMr Dimas warned it would be better to miss the centrally-set EU
target rather than meet it by harming poor people through soaring food prices or
destroying natural habitats of endangered species, such as the orang-utan.
Mr Dimas wants a ban on palm oil or sugar cane from primary rainforest that ...