Biofuels answer to climate change: UN, EU

ATHENS (AFP) — Biofuels must be developed more selectively to prevent competition with food-related crops, but they are still an answer to climate change, United Nations and European Union officials said on Tuesday.

"There is a concern that perhaps some of the investment and engagement in some of the biofuel production...in some cases did not go in the right direction," said Christophe Bouvier, European regional director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

"But I think it's a question of making sure that the correct biofuels are being promoted...we have to be vigilant," he said on the sidelines of a three-day conference on climate and energy security in Athens.

There are cases of crops such as corn where "productivity is very low" in terms of the energy consumed to produce fuel, Bouvier said.

But there are also crops such as sugar cane which "could be ...