The European Commission has given its clearest signal yet that it may ditch its controversial targets to ensure 10 per cent of transport fuel comes from biofuels by 2020.

According to Guardian reports, senior officials at the Commission have indicated they are willing to discard the binding targets in an attempt to ensure that those biofuels that are used come from environmentally sustainable sources and not plantations that have contributed, indirectly or otherwise, to deforestation.

The paper quotes as unnamed official as saying that the Commission would not object if governments ordered a U-turn on the proposed biofuel targets.

It also cites another official who accepted that "there is now a lot of new evidence on biofuels", adding that "the commission has become a prisoner of this process".

The move is likely to anger Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who last week accused the EU of over stating the problems posed by climate change, insisting that recent increases in food prices had more to do with the soaring price of oil and increased demand than the use of agricultural land to grow fuel crops such as sugar cane and palm oil.

However, the consensus of opinion is fast turning against the Brazilian premier and other advocates of biofuels with a raft of scientists and politicians now openly criticising the trend.

Last week, Jean Ziegler, the UN's rapporteur on the right to food, went so far as to term biofuels "a crime against humanity", claiming they were diverting food away from the poor. Meanwhile, a fresh report from the European Environment Agency called on the EU to ditch its proposed biofuel targets, claiming that they could have a major impact on biodiversity and water supplies.

In related news, the US Department of Energy last week announced up to $7m in federal funding over the next two years to support research into second generation biofuels made from non-food crops.

The Department is inviting applications for funding from projects that can improve the conversion of biomass to biofuels via pyrolysis – a process that uses heat to chemically decompose the tough materials found in plant matter. Advocates of the technology claim it can be used effectively to turn waste agricultural matter and non-food crops into biofuels, ensuring they can be developed without eating into agricultural land.