News Digest Item
29 Aug 2016

“More maize won’t work”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung

Maize crops in Germany have risen by 73 percent since 2000, driven by biogas production, and critics say it is causing problems for the environment and eroding the diversity of crops, writes Sebastian Balzter in the Frankfurter Allemeine Sonntagszeitung. No other crop in Germany has increased in volume as much as maize, he writes. This has been driven by subsidies from the Energiewende, which benefit power produced by renewables. As of next year, however, the state will reduce these subsidies as part of its Renewable Energy Act (EEG) reform, with potentially negative effects on the 8,000 biogas production facilities in Germany, he writes.

Read a CLEW factsheet about biofuels and the Energiewende here.

Read a CLEW dossier about the EEG reforms here.

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