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Biofuels

All that I have said about the research and discussion to develop the policy in the European Union leads to the conclusion that that is needed, but we are not at the stage of concluding that work. I strongly agree that it is necessary, but I cannot say tonight that we have reached that position yet. We aim to do so. The criteria do not currently cover the indirect effects of biofuel production such as the indirect land use change that my hon. Friend the Member for Brent, North pointed to as being so crucial to our deliberations. Those effects relate to new biofuel crops that displace existing agricultural production into areas of rainforest and high biodiversity, for example. We agree that the European Commission needs to produce a report on indirect land use change in 2010, and the UK will be focusing its research efforts on trying to find a workable methodology for accounting for the indirect impacts of biofuels under the renewable energy directive.