Major global biofuels agreement signed at Rio+20

An agreement has been signed by The Netherlands and Brazil at international sustainable energy conference Rio+20 designed to boost biofuels development between the two countries.

 Dutch state secretary for infrastructure and environment Joop Atsma co-signed with Brazil’s chief negotiator at Rio+20 Luiz Figueiredo Machado, which will also see the two countries share knowledge of electricity generation from biomass.

State secretary Atsma was reported as saying: ‘The Netherlands only wants to use fuels that are produced in a manner that has no negative impact on agriculture, food production or nature for example. It is therefore important we inform countries and companies that produce biofuels of our requirements in terms of sustainability in order for them to take them into account during their production process.’

Atsma is in no doubt this agreement with Brazil sees ‘perfect alignment’ between supply and demand requirements.

Currently 4.5% of imported fuel into The Netherlands is made from renewable sources and is set to rise due to increasing demand and EU 2020 target attainment.