Dutch Minister Sees No Need For Biofuels Moratorium

A national moratorium on the use of biofuels would not stop other countries producing unsustainably and a better strategy would be to develop industry standards, the Dutch environment minister said on Wednesday.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food called for a five-year moratorium on biofuels last year, saying it was a “crime against humanity” to convert food crops to fuel.
Britain’s transport ministry has said it will review the environmental and economic impact of biofuels production after a parliamentary committee also called for a moratorium on increasing their use.

“We could opt for a moratorium, but my fear is that the rest of the world will go on with this development without taking into account the sustainability aspect,” Dutch Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer told Reuters in an interview.

“We (had) better show how it should be done rather than just criticising and not intervening,” she said, adding that she hoped to set in motion a strategy in which biomass and biofuels were produced only in sustainable ways.

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