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Climate Change Bill [HL]

My Lords, I shall speak briefly. Having served on the biofuels inquiry held by your Lordships’ House, I can say that we were depressed at how difficult the certification of biofuels is going to be. While we may talk about biofuels being certified as not having been grown in a deforested area, I can tell noble Lords that, after visiting nine countries in central and south America over the past few years, the difficulty is that the biofuel crops are grown on land that for decades was cultivated for growing food. The biofuels are certifiable, but the fact is that food growing has shifted to the newly deforested areas. Food is needed for consumption in-country and does not need to be certified. This is an easy way around the certification issue and it is very difficult to address. I am sure that the Minister will say that this is a matter for Europe. I should be grateful if he could give me an indication of how Europe is going to address certification because the issue is important.