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Polish Presidency in the EU
Conference participants
at the plenary session
return to the distributed energy. And here we are
to compete with coal and oil monopoly. Therefore,
proposing bio-energy is not easy. The old power industry
is accustomed to high power transmission
and low energy sources do not really fit it. It needs
to be considered while producing bio-energy onsite
to use an existing small-scale infrastructure.
It should also be specified
where the limits of the
import and transport of
biomass are”, the minister
said and stressed the need
to consider whether the
importation of biomass to
Europe from other regions of the world has any
sense in the context of the least polluting the atmosphere
by emitting large amounts of CO 2
.
The conference was attended by deputy ministers
of agriculture of the Member States, representatives
of the Council, the European Commission
and European Parliament, as well as
representatives of science, agencies from the
area of agriculture and the provincial and local
government.
The discussion included issues related to the
development of renewable energy sources in
rural areas and the use of Community biomass
resources from agricultural sources for energy
purposes. An important element of the meeting
was to continue discussions on how to improve
the competitiveness of Community agriculture
by developing, in the area of the investments related
to renewable energy sources.
“The primary goal of agriculture is and will
be the production of healthy, safe food to feed
all people. Bioenergy production may, however,
constitute only a sideline, which is a supplement
to agricultural income and primarily using byproducts
and residues from post-production. One
should also be aware that this is only a temporary
source of energy production. Soon, through scientific
and technical achievements, we will have a
chance to use other, simpler and more competitive
sources of it”, Minister Sawicki said.
During the discussion, it was stated e.g. that:
The implementation of an important objective
of the Common Agricultural Policy as enshrined
in Article 33 of the Treaty of Rome which
is to “Ensure a satisfactory standard of living of
the rural population, especially by increasing the
individual earnings of persons engaged in agriculture”
requires the creation of conditions to
fully utilize production capacity owned or available
to the farmers and is made possible by:
Active Common Agricultural Policy supporting
the development of production and exporting
to the third countries of processed agricultural
products surplus;
Use of energy purposes of locally available byproducts
and residues from agriculture, agroindustry
and food;
Support for agricultural
crops (not competing with
food markets), dedicated to
energy purposes;
Support to farmers and rural
residents interested in using
the local agricultural biomass
for energy purposes.
Not only does the Common Agricultural Policy,
but also the cohesion policy and energy policy
should encourage the development of distributed
power facilities, using the agricultural biomass,
the demand of which for raw materials for
energy production results from the productive
potential of the farm or group of farms. At the
same time those farms shall be able to manage
on their own remains after the renewable energy
production. Only such an approach is a guarantee
of reducing greenhouse gases emissions
and protect the environment and biodiversity.
Analysis of data (FAOSTAT) indicates that over
the past 18 years the Community's agricultural
production potential was reduced by about 10
million ha of agricultural land and in the same
period, global production capacity only in 15 selected
countries (non EU) increased by about 100
million ha of arable agricultural products. Community
Forest area increased by about 25 million
hectares, while in 15 selected countries (non EU)
fell by about 150 million ha.
12
Autumn 2011