The European Parliament called Monday for the EU to lower its targets for developing biofuels, linked with raising harmful emissions and driving up food prices, in favour of cleaner power sources for transport. Also on Monday, the UK government signalled a retreat on its biofuels targets after the publication of a report showing the fuels contributed to rises in food prices. A UK report says that a third of the food bought for home consumption is wasted

The environment committee of the European Parliament recommended that the EU aim to make renewable sources account for between eight and 10% of transport power sources, with biofuels to account for just half of this share.

The EU's energy and climate plan, that was launched last year, says no less than 10% of all the fuel powering vehicles must come from renewable energy by 2020.

The EU plan also related to other renewable sources besides biofuels but only a minor part of the 10% target. The other sources such as electric cars and  hydrogen fuel are not seen as commercially viable in the medium-term.

The environment committee on Monday also recommended a midway target by which renewables would account for 4% of transport energy sources by 2015, with biofuels to make up only a fraction of this.

The industry and energy committee will vote on the issue in September.

The EU plan calls for 20% of all energy needs in the EU27 to be met from renewable sources by 2020, and for a 20% reduction of greenhouse gases, compared to 1990 levels, by the same date.

In the UK, Ed Gallagher, former chief of the Environment Agency, said that the current target is to derive 2.5% of the UK’s transport fuels from biofuels this year and doubling by 2010, should be slowed down, with the 2.5% target left in place but raised by 0.5% a year to 2013-14.

Ruth Kelly, Secretary of State for Transport, signalled that the government would concede: “I agree with Professor Gallagher that we should take a precautionary approach over the next few years, until we are clearer about their wider effects.”

On Monday, the UK Cabinet Office published the results of a ten-month Strategy Unit project looking at food policy across government – and concludes that rising demand, climate change, and trade and productivity restrictions must all be addressed.

Commissioned by the Prime Minister, the report focuses on food issues in the UK and puts them in a global context. It draws together evidence about long-term trends in food production and consumption, and how food safety and nutrition impact on the health of the UK.

The report says some biofuels can potentially play an important role in tackling climate change, but the government must ensure that they are sustainable and that they do not distort food markets.

The report says that the Government is taking steps to ensure that the interactions between biofuel policies and food markets are better understood – so that policies can be adjusted if necessary

The use of food crops such as maize, wheat and oilseeds for biofuel production is coming under increasing scrutiny, not only with respect to the net GHG (Green House Gases) benefit but also because of the potential impact on food prices.

The report says that a number of factors have driven recent food price increases – demand for biofuel is only one. But this is an area where, through the targets they set, governments have greater control over an influence on the food market, and it is important that policy is well informed and sensitive to the differences among the different fuels. The evidence base is evolving quickly, but it seems clear that biofuels are a more significant factor in some food markets than others: diversion of maize to bioethanol is generally thought to have had an impact on the maize market, whereas rises in rice prices are likely to have had other causes.

Some key recommendations are:

• Building on the Stern Review on climate change and drawing on the UK's "world class science base", the UK should take a leadership role in looking at how the world can meet the twin challenges of climate change and global food security. The Government's Chief Scientific Adviser is commissioning a major new project on this, which is announced today. It will explore how the food system and its associated policies will need to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

• The Government should launch a public engagement about a more joined-up approach to UK food policy that pursues fair prices, safer food, healthier diets and better environmental performance; Defra (Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs) will work in partnership with DH and FSA, to develop and engage the public and food businesses in a new shared vision to guide future food strategy. This work will be completed by autumn 2009.

• The UK must continue to focus on fair prices, access to food and food security through competitive markets; Defra will shortly be issuing a discussion paper that takes forward this important debate.

• We must work with other European countries to promote the role of agriculture in mitigating and adapting to climate change; Defra will take this forward with other major partners, such as Germany and France, to build consensus on priorities and secure effective action.

• A new scheme should be launched to get the public sector in England providing healthier, more environmentally sustainable food. The Department of Health will take forward the development and launch of a new Healthier Food Mark for public food.

• We need to help consumers to access healthier choices when eating out, and need to provide information that considers both the health and environmental aspects of food.

Key findings include:

• World food output must rise to feed a growing, wealthier population. The World Bank estimates that cereal production needs to increase by 50% and meat production 80% between 2000 and 2030 to meet demand. But this will need to be achieved in a changing climate and in a world where natural resources – especially water – are becoming more scarce;

• For the world and for households, cutting waste would help – in the developing world up to 40% of food harvested can be lost due to problems with storage and distribution, and in the UK consumers waste £10 billion worth of food each year

• In farmgate value terms, half of the food eaten in the UK is home-grown, nearly 70% of the rest comes from elsewhere in the EU. Everything else, from tea to pineapples to prawns is sourced from across the world;

• The food chain creates 18% of UK greenhouse gas emissions. Farming and fishing contribute around half of this total. Changes to farming practices, such as more efficient use of fertiliser and providing animals with diets that specifically match their nutrient requirements could reduce emissions from agriculture;

• A third of the food bought for home consumption is wasted – 6.7 million tonnes. Most of this could have been eaten. Wasting food costs the average UK family £420 a year. Eliminating the unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions that this wasted food produces would be equivalent to taking one in five cars off UK roads. By using 60% of food thrown away by households, enough energy could be generated to provide power for all the homes in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

• If UK diets met nutritional guidelines, 70,000 premature deaths could be prevented each year. On average, adults and children eat more salt, fat and added sugar than is good for their health, and too few fruit and vegetables despite high awareness of the ‘5 a day’ target. A new push on the 5 A DAY campaign is needed.

The Prime Minister Gordon Brown said:

“The rise of popular interest in food policy issues, and growing public awareness of the impact of what we choose to eat on everything from animal welfare, to our health and the protection of the environment has seen a massive transformation in Britain's food culture over the past ten years. This cultural change, along with more recent events in global food markets, has brought new and urgent policy challenges to the fore, which governments must act to meet.

“Recent food price increases are a powerful reminder that access to ever more affordable food cannot be taken for granted, and it is the family finances of the poorest in our society that are hit hardest when food prices rise. But the principal food security challenge for the UK is a global one. We cannot deal with higher food prices in the UK in isolation from higher prices around the world. Attempting to pursue national food security in isolation from the global context is unlikely to be practicable, sustainable or financially rational.

“So to tackle higher prices both here in Britain and in developing countries, where food often accounts for more than half a family's spending, we will continue to play a leading role in combating instability in commodity markets and building a more resilient global food chain, as well as maintaining a supportive environment for competitive UK food producers. If food production in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world reached its potential, global food output would be much higher, far fewer people would go hungry and the threat of food-related political and social instability around the world would recede.”

As a first step, the Department for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra) will shortly be publishing a paper entitled ‘Ensuring the UK's Food Security in a Globalised World’. This report will set out the key factors which affect food supply and pricing, and encourages discussion with stakeholders including producers and retailers about ensuring long-term food security

The Strategy Unit report also calls for a clearer view of how the food system should adapt to feeding a growing global population at the same time as the planet is experiencing the effects of climate change.