Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions – in the House of Commons at 4:26 pm on 7 July 2008.
Ruth Kelly
Secretary of State, Department for Transport
4:26,
7 July 2008
The right hon. Gentleman makes an incredibly important point. In the north-east of England with the Ensus site, but also on other sites, the production process has very substantial direct greenhouse gas savings from well to wheel. Part of the reason for that is, as I have explained, that the co-products are also used to substitute for animal feed. What it does not take into account is the indirect impact. The report suggests that even in those cases we ought to think through the indirect impact. Clearly, we do not currently have a mechanism for measuring the indirect impact, or for safeguarding against the potential greenhouse gas consequences or the increase in food prices that might result. In future, however, we should aspire to that. The report sets out a cautious approach that will give us time to have those global negotiations to put in place progressive measures to control land use, and to make sure that as far as possible—it will not always be possible—first or indeed second generation biofuels are produced on idle or marginal land.
Annotations
David Wright
Posted on 8 Jul 2008 12:39 pm (Report this annotation)
In brief: "They won't!"