The farmers of Cyprus may be in despair because with the warnings for lack and restrictions in the irrigation water, they will not be able to plant lettuce and onions either, but due to harmonization with a Community Directive, the Parliament is called to adopt -quickly- a law by which 7% of fuels include biofuels, produced from cereals and other starchy, sugary and oily plants.
In fact, when they say "starchy plants", they mean fuel from cereals, potatoes, courgettes, as specified in the relevant bill and its official accompanying documents.
Specifically, as explained, in addition to starchy plants are included "plants grown as basic crops, mainly for energy purposes on agricultural land", which will not exceed 7% of final energy consumption in transport in 2020.
Of course, there is no specific reference to the fact that courgettes and potatoes in Cyprus are grown mainly in an area (Kokkinochoria) from where, if the new directive works mechanically, Cyprus should supply part of its fuel as much as it now supplies from the Of course, because we will obviously not produce this fuel, we will import it from other EU countries.
The binding targets also concern a minimum share of 13% energy from renewable sources in the gross final energy consumption in 2020 and a minimum share of 10% energy from renewable sources in transport in 2020.
The Council of Ministers, however, approved the relevant bills on April 4 and have already been submitted to Parliament for discussion and voting. It should be noted that the implementation of the Directive in Cyprus will mean an increase in the cost of gasoline and diesel up to 6 cents per liter, something that all parties know and was officially stated in Parliament last week by the Minister of Transport.
In fact, because we have not yet transposed the relevant Directive, while any efforts to exempt Cyprus due to the fact that in this case does not lead to the main purpose of the Directive (environmental protection) have failed, the European Commission has started a referral process. Of Cyprus.
Specifically, the referral is pending from November 2017, since the harmonization should have been completed by September last year and the answer of Cyprus was that it will be quickly forwarded to the Ministerial and Parliament bill.
"Based on the above, as well as the suggestions of the Attorney General of the Republic recorded in his above-mentioned letter, the ministry submits a request to the House of Representatives that the bill in question be discussed and passed into law immediately, as there is a possibility the European Commission to proceed with the filing of an appeal against the Republic of Cyprus before the Court of Justice of the European Union for untimely harmonization with the Directive ", the Ministry of Energy states in the accompanying documents sent to the deputies.
The selling price will increase
It is worth noting that, according to the accompanying documents sent by the Ministry of Energy to Parliament, during the consultation ExxonMobil (Esso) submitted a written letter of objection to the bill and the decree, citing the limited availability of advanced biofuels.
In the same documents, it is officially acknowledged that with the introduction of the new fuel framework, there will be a significant economic impact on citizens and businesses. As explained, the proposed legislation sets maximum and minimum limits on the use of biofuels (up to 7% use of 1st generation biofuels and at least 0,5% use of advanced biofuels).
"This obligation will have costs for the oil companies, since advanced biofuels are more expensive compared to the first generation and conventional fuels. This cost will affect the selling price of fuel and will be passed on to the citizens ". That is, oil companies will have additional costs in the import of petroleum products, due to the import of advanced biofuels, costs that will obviously be transferred - plus all the tax burdens that follow, to the pump that fills the fuel of the citizen and businesses.
According to the Government, however, the additional costs will not be such as to have significant consequences. At the same time, as reported, "a positive impact on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in road transport" is expected, without mentioning where this reduction will come from in Cyprus.
Damage to the environment will offset the benefit
There are no real problems for timely implementation of the proposed legislation, according to the Government, after a study by EU experts who themselves initially find that it is a gift - free, since according to the study, due to increased use to achieve the target of using 10% of RES in transport by 2020, "there is a risk that greenhouse gas emissions associated with indirect land use change for biofuel production will be significant and may nullify the whole or part of the expected reduction in greenhouse gas emissions ".
That is why it is proposed to take measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with indirect land use change. What are the proposed measures? "The development of advanced biofuels, using low-value resources such as straw, wood waste and forestry."
That is why the scholars consider this measure as a gift - free, since Cyprus is not offered for such production but also "the cost for the production of such fuels is higher than the alternative of conventional biofuels".
So, they conclude that the solution is to provide incentives for the production of advanced biofuels that do not require land commitment for their production, but without giving even an example of profitable and responsive to the conditions of the island such production.
Source: Liberal
