Graham Stringer (Labour)

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assessment he has made of the effect on UK food prices of his Department’s biomass strategy. ( 321463 )

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Mr. Kidney

A study carried out by E4Tech to inform the UK’s 2009 Renewable Energy Strategy, examined the availability of biomass supplies. The results indicate that there could be sufficient biomass resource potential in the UK for bio-energy to play a significant role in meeting the renewable energy target in 2020, and that imported biomass feedstocks could increasingly become a traded commodity. The study assumed that food demands are met first, and only considered the potential for UK energy crops from land currently not used for arable crops. The study also considered unexploited UK biomass reserves such as energy from waste and bringing back into production forest and woodland that has fallen out of good management practice. These sources of biomass do not compete with food crops and so do not impact on food prices.

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