Bioenergy in Europe: Experiences and prospects

Although Europe is a relatively small producer of ethanol (2.6 percent of world production in 2005), it produces a sizable share of the world’s biodiesel (88 percent of world production in 2005). Production started in the early 1990s (well after Brazil and the United States), when revisions to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) first allowed farmers to grow nonfood crops for income on set-aside land. Germany began to produce biodiesel from rapeseed, while France undertook production of bioethanol from sugar beet and wheat. Today, Germany is the world’s largest biodiesel..