Drought will sharply cut the rapeseed harvest in Germany, which produces about a quarter of the European Union's crop, and is likely to force biodiesel producers to cut output.

About 75 percent of Germany's rapeseed is used by its biodiesel industry, the largest in the EU.

"The biodiesel producers must seek to find alternative supplies or may face the prospect of cutting their production," s

Sarhad Awami Forestry Ittehad (Safi) has asked the government to take steps for protection of forests and provide alternative energy sources to people at cheaper rates so that they will stop cutting trees.

These views were expressed during a conference here on Wednesday and those who spoke on the occasion included MPA Jaffar Shah, Ameer Mohammad, Riaz Mohammad, Jamshid Khan and Javaid Akhtar.

A divisive European debate over the green credentials of biofuels has stalled investment, but the stalemate may soon be over for advanced biofuels and some types of bioethanol.

The debate over biodiesel, however, looks set to rage on.

After a two-year investigation, the European Commission has decided that the complex issue of "indirect land use change" (ILUC) can lessen carbon savings from

German drivers are reluctant to buy a new gasoline blend with a higher biofuel content, the country's oil industry association said on Friday.

Germany this year raised the maximum permitted level of bioethanol blended in gasoline to 10 percent from 5 percent as part of Germany's programme to protect the environment by cutting CO2 emissions.

But sales since the introduction three months ago h

The Western and Central railways have decided to go green in order to reduce its carbon footprint. They have been planting saplings of jatropha, a major source of bio-diesel, on pilot basis.

''Running trains on bio-fuel will help cut down the cost of operations and also cause less pollution. We have sucessfully conducted trial runs using bio-diesel.

KOLKATA, 17 APRIL: At a time when leaders of both the CPI-M and the Trinamul Congress are all out to woo voters ahead of the Assembly election and have been appearing in several forums to answer people's queries, a set of questionnaire sent by a city-based NGO on the parties