Food instead of diesel
Lemke wants to limit biofuel production
04/29/2022, 11:45 am
The Ukraine war is causing grain deliveries to drop massively, and the global south is suffering as a result. Environment Minister Lemke therefore wants to limit biofuel production. Germany is now responsible for using agricultural land for food and “not for the tank”.
According to Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, the federal government wants to restrict the use of agricultural products as fuel additives because of the Ukraine war. She is working with the Ministry of Agriculture to reduce the use of so-called biofuels from food and feed plants, the Greens politician told the “Augsburger Allgemeine”.
“Agricultural land is limited worldwide, we urgently need it for food, the war in Ukraine is a dramatic reminder of that,” explained Lemke. Especially in the Global South, people would already suffer from the lack of availability of grain. Now it is “our responsibility as a large industrialized country that agricultural land is used for the production of food and not for the tank.”
Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir had previously criticized the use of biofuel: “It’s not sustainable to pour wheat and corn into the tank,” he said at the end of March and emphasized that he was in talks with Lemke and Economics Minister Robert Habeck. The land that is used for this worldwide could feed starving people.
“Win for Food Security”
Development Minister Svenja Schulze also spoke out in favor of reducing grain cultivation for biofuels in view of the global food crisis. “In Germany alone, five percent of the arable land is used for biofuel production. If we succeed in gaining this land step by step for food production, that would be a win for food security,” Schulze told the “Handelsblatt”.
Lemke pointed out that in Germany from 2023 the use of palm oil as a fuel additive in diesel will no longer be recognized as biofuel. “I now want to take the next step and also further reduce the use of agrofuels from food and feed crops,” announced Lemke. At present, seven percent vegetable oil products are usually added to diesel to reduce the CO2 balance, and between five and ten percent bioethanol, which is usually obtained from grain and beets, is added to petrol.
The federal director of the German Environmental Aid, Jürgen Resch, called for “agrofuels to be completely and permanently removed from funding with immediate effect”. CSU energy expert Andreas Lenz warned against doing without biofuels and adding them to petrol and diesel: “Biofuels significantly reduce the need for fossil fuels and thus make a contribution to security of supply and fewer dependencies.”