Law change planned: Lemke wants to limit biofuel

Because a lot of agricultural land is occupied for the cultivation of plants for biofuel, Environment Minister Lemke wants to limit the use. Biofuels from food and feed crops are “out of date”.

Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke wants to limit the use of biofuel from cultivated plants by changing the law. She will “promptly make a proposal for a change in the law and coordinate it with the other ministries,” Lemke told the dpa news agency. According to dpa information, the topic should also be part of the resolutions that the federal and state environment ministers want to announce at their current conference in Wilhelmshaven.

Shortly before the two-day deliberations, the head of the Environment Ministers’ Conference, Lower Saxony’s head of department, Olaf Lies, was also critical of biofuel from plant cultivation and even called for an end to the use of fuels from food and fodder crops.

“Food doesn’t belong in the tank”

The Greens politician Lemke also made the goal clear: “We need our fields more urgently than ever for food production. That’s why we have to reduce the use of agrofuels from food and feed plants.” Her line is clear: “Food belongs on the plate, not in the tank.” Biofuels from food and feed crops are “out of date,” said Lemke. “Areas are scarce in Germany, food prices are rising.” The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine is further exacerbating the situation.

The Greens politician had already announced two weeks ago that she wanted to take appropriate steps together with her party colleague and Federal Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir. The use of biofuels, which are sometimes also referred to as agrofuels, has been controversial for some time. These fuels are obtained, for example, from the oil of rapeseed, soya, oil palm and other oil plants and are mixed with other fuels.

According to a recent study by the Heidelberg Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IFEU), a total of 1.2 million hectares of agricultural land around the world – 500,000 of them in Germany alone – are occupied for biofuels for diesel and petrol cars on German roads.