Tough new limits on the maximum sulphur content of shipping fuels will come into effect in Europe at the end of the decade, after EU governments agreed on draft legislation on Wednesday.

Air pollution from marine fuels with a high sulphur content is estimated to cause 50,000 premature deaths a year in Europe, the European Parliament has said.

"This is excellent news for our health and the environment, especially in ports and coastal areas," EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said in a statement.

National environmental programmes have been seeing no progress since the devolution of the Ministry of Environment two years ago.

All environmental conservation plans were approved by the Pakistan Environment Protection Council (PEPC) – the apex organisation at the national level for formulation and implementation of the national environmental policy and programmes – headed by the prime minister.

After a decade of promise, advanced biofuels makers are entering a crucial make-or-break period with the first of a new generation of production facilities about to come on line.

The new facilities are designed to take biofuels beyond corn-based ethanol and begin to shift the industry to "advanced" fuels made with a lower carbon footprint derived from products that will not compete with demand for food.

Senior European Union officials failed on Wednesday to agree on how to measure the full climate impact of biofuels, prolonging uncertainty in a debate that threatens to wipe out large parts of Europe's biodiesel industry.

The talks followed warnings from scientists that using biodiesel made from European rapeseed and imported palm oil and soybeans does nothing to prevent climate change and could actually accelerate it.

Proposed EU law requiring fuel suppliers to report the carbon intensity of their product, and which also rank oil from tar sands as particularly polluting, would only cost vehicle drivers around one euro cent per oil barrel, a report said on Thursday.

EU member countries are already required to report extensive fuel data, meaning the proposed laws would not require much extra effort, the report by consultancies CE Delft, Carbon Matters and Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands found.