LONDON — Officials from some G7 countries, including Germany and the UK, will push for temporary waivers on biofuels mandates to combat soaring food prices when leaders from the group of wealthy nations meet this week, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The food crisis caused by the war in Ukraine has sparked a food versus biofuel debate, with some policymakers calling for an easing of mandates for blending biofuels into gasoline and diesel to increase the supply of global grain and vegetable oil.
“We’re quite keen to look at the issue of biofuel mandates to ensure that crops are prioritized for food consumption and not necessarily for use in fuels,” a British government official told Reuters.
It’s not clear whether there’s broad-based support to temporarily waive biofuel mandates across the G7 members which include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the world’s largest biofuel producer, the US. Surging oil and gas prices have also increased the demand for energy sourced from crops.
“The issue of biofuel mandates is at a preliminary stage of discussion at the working level,” said a spokesman for Canada’s agriculture ministry.
The group began a three-day meeting in Bavaria, Germany, on Sunday and food security is on the agenda, after the presidency launched a Global Alliance for Food Security in May to tackle hunger. — Reuters