HL Deb 20 October 2003 vol 653 cc154-5WA
Lord Carter

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What view they have formed of the potential ability of British agriculture to produce biodiesel and bioethanol from current crops and technology. [HL4694]

Lord Whitty

Biofuels offer an opportunity for diversification of agricultural activities and the development of new markets. Traditional technologies for producing biodiesel and bioethanol use crops including oilseed rape, suger beet and potatoes, which are well known to farmers and use the same crop management drivers as for food crops.

In order to produce a significant percentage of the UK's fuel requirements, a large amount of land would need to be dedicated to biofuel crops. To meet the 5.75 per cent reference target for use of biofuels in the EU Biofuels Directive, if entirely provided from virgin crops ie excluding recycled oil or forestry by-products etc, would require up to 1 million hectares of land: about 10 per cent of available land. For UK farmers to produce fuel crops on this scale, the market return to the farmer would need to be sufficient to motivate diversion from production for established food and animal feed markets.

Lord Carter

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What actions they propose to enable the United Kingdom to meet the 2005 and 2010 European Union targets for biofuel use, 2 per cent and 5.75 per cent respectively. [HL4695]

Lord Davies of Oldham

The European Union's Biofuels Directive requires member states to set their own indicative targets for sales of biofuels to be met in the years 2005 and 2010. The Government will be consulting early next year on the level of targets that might be appropriate for the UK, and on the steps that we might take to meet them.