Part of Oral Answers to Questions — International Development – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 11 June 2008.
Douglas Alexander
The Secretary of State for International Development
11:30,
11 June 2008
The role of biofuels was of course an issue of some dispute at the Rome summit. A speech was made by President Lula, for example, who offered a strong defence of what he called the right type of biofuels. Much of the debate about biofuels, which needs to be better understood, is long on anecdote and short on fact. That is why the British Government have initiated the Gallagher review and I assure my hon. Friend that we are in discussions with the Department for Transport on that review. The Chancellor of the exchequer has urged the World Bank to take forward work on understanding the impact of biofuels on land use and, more widely, on social sustainability. We are also in dialogue with the European Commission to see whether we can establish a European position on the issue.
The chancellor of the exchequer is the government's chief financial minister and as such is responsible for raising government revenue through taxation or borrowing and for controlling overall government spending.
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