GAVE
Climate neutral gaseous and liquid energy carriers
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GAVE is a government programme that supports the development and introduction of climate-neutral fuels in the Dutch transport sector.
The programme's most important task is to support the implementation of the European Renewable Energy Directive into Dutch national legislation with respect to biofuels.
This EU Directive states that, by the year 2020, 10% of the energy used in the transport sector must be derived from renewable energy.
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| GAVE news |
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Corbey Commission recommends not increasing target for sustainable energy in the transport sector for 2020
Date published: Feb 5, 2010 |
The Corbey Commission (officially entitled the Commissie Duurzaamheidsvraagstukken Biomassa (CDB) or Commission for Sustainability Aspects of Biomass) has published its fourth set of recommendations: First quality, then quantity. These recommendations concern the contribution that biomass can make to achieving sustainable energy targets, and have been submitted to Minister Cramer. The Minister had asked the CDB to advise the government on sustainable energy targets for the transport sector, and also to look at opportunities to increase this target above the original 10%.
In order to complete this task, the CDB looked at costs, efficiency, technological developments and questions concerning sustainability. Analyses, studies and reports showed that the use of biomass has a great future in the transport and energy sectors, as well as for industry. From around 2020 onwards, the large-scale use of biomass can be competitive with fossil-based fuels. This is good news, because biomass contributes to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and reducing dependency on oil - a commodity that is fast becoming scarce. But there are significant sustainability risks involved: there is competition with the food chain, and there may be heavy pressure to use more land, including nature areas, for production.
This is why the CDB feels it is important to give priority to making sustainable biomass available. Between now and 2020 our goal should not be to use as much biomass as possible, but to invest in quality and sustainability. The CDB recommends working towards a strategy for making sustainable biomass available. This means investing in agricultural efficiency, in using marginal land, in using technologies that use residues, but also in creating logistical chains. It is very important to work towards a global framework that guarantees the sustainability of biomass, which should include avoiding negative indirect effects (such as changes in land use, and influencing food prices).
Against this background, the CDB sees no reason to increase the targets for 2020. Firstly, it is not clear whether the technology will be sufficiently developed by 2020 to allow targets to be increased. There is also no certainty that the sustainability of larger flows can be sufficiently guaranteed. If the development of sustainability frameworks is accelerated (in practice) faster than predicted, and if the technological development allows earlier large-scale production, the objectives for 2020 could be increased in 2014. The CDB therefore recommends re-evaluating policies in 2014.
The CDB is a wide-ranging commission that advises the Dutch government on sustainability as a precondition to the large-scale use of biomass and biofuels, and is chaired by Dorette Corbey. The secretariat is run by Ella Lammers, AgencyNL.
CDB recommendations are available on the website: www.corbey.nl. |
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