China needs new policies to kick start biofuel sector

The Chinese government needs to draw up new policies to ensure that its biofuel targets can be achieved efficiently and economically, said a researcher with the country’s regulator, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). Wang Zhongying, the assistant director of the renewable energy section of the NDRC’s Energy Research Institute, said at a conference in Beijing that the industry has so far been stumbling along without any proper product standards or market entry requirements. He noted that it was generally cost effective to produce biofuels when the price of crude oil rises above US$60 per barrel, but it was so far impossible to say what impact the large-scale cultivation of biofuel crops would have on food and water supplies, the environment, and the quantity and quality of land in China. He called upon the government to do its best to use what technology already exists to take greater advantage of current “first generation” biofuel resources such as ethanol, biodiesel and vegetable oil. (June 4, 2008)