The European Union should fight climate change with a broad-based carbon tax rather than by setting precise targets for the use of biofuels and renewable energy, according to a team of British economists.
Europe Economics, a London-based consultancy, says biofuels targets amount to “a form of state support for an environmentally and economically harmful activity designed to consolidate existing price support mechanisms for vested interest groups, most notably farmers”.
The European Commission on Wednesday will present a plan for tackling climate change that aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the EU by 20 per cent of their 1990 levels by 2020.
The Commission’s proposal that biofuels should account for 10 per cent of road transport fuels has been questioned in many quarters, including by the Joint Research Centre, the Commission’s in-house science institute.
See full Article (paid subscription required).
Posts
