This month, following the discussion about the need for sustainability criteria required to reach the 10% biofuels target within the EU Directive for the Promotion of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, the claim is:

"The 10% EU target is required to establish a 100% sustainable biofuels market within ten years”

This week, our guest commenting on this Sustatement is Carlos St.James, President of the Argentine Renewable Energies Chamber and Managing Director of the biofuels consultancy Santiago & Sinclair LLC. 

“The Argentine biofuels industry is young but growing rapidly. We are following in Brazil’s footsteps in establishing a world-class ethanol industry and maximizing our natural competitive advantages in biodiesel. We fully expect to be the world’s leading producer of biodiesel in the coming years because of our country’s strength in agricultural production. 

And in the same way that Brazil and the United States share a natural market affinity because of gasoline and ethanol, there is an even stronger natural tie between Europe and Argentina on the diesel/biodiesel side. Working together, then, makes a lot of sense.

But this growth needs to be achieved in a sustainable manner, and for this reason we support efforts to ensure that every biofuel-producing nation also complies with these requirements.  We need a coherent internationally agreed process to ensure sustainability and need to play a role in creating this policy.

We believe that second-generation technology will only aid in this process, giving the industry greater efficiencies, a larger palette of options for feedstock, and a way to address the food vs. fuel debate in a fair setting, something that has not happened to date.  The investment options for European firms with the latest technology into Argentina are enormous.

Europe’s 10% biofuels requirement is an important first step in this direction, setting the tone for the rest of the world to follow, and taking us into a cleaner, more efficient future.  Our industry supports it.”

See 'The Sustatement Archives' for all previous sustatements.