Member states split over biofuel emissions

Ministers to discuss proposed biofuel limits.

Energy ministers meeting in Brussels on Friday (22 February) are expected  to clash over a European Commission proposal to limit the extent to which the growing of biofuel crops displaces food crops or causes increased carbon emissions through indirect land-use change (ILUC). 

Some member states, including the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK, want the EU to go further than the Commission has proposed. Central and eastern European states, with Poland to the fore, are opposed to any revision that takes ILUC into account, while France and Germany are backing the Commission’s proposal essentially as written.

In EU legislation agreed in 2008, member states committed themselves to sourcing 10% of their transport fuel from renewable sources by 2020. The expectation has been that mostly this will come from biofuel. But since the legislation was adopted evidence has grown that some forms of biofuel are causing more emissions than they abate because of the land-use change they trigger, such as clearing forests to grow biofuel crops. Other studies have concluded that the use of food crops as biofuel is driving up food prices.

The Commission proposed in October to revise the legislation so that biofuel derived from food crops or causing land-use change can count to at most half of the 10% renewables quota. It also proposed that the fuel-quality directive, which requires fuel producers to derive at least 6% of their products from renewable sources, be revised to require the companies to attach an ‘ILUC factor’ rating to each of their fuels.

But the Commission stopped short of proposing that a high ILUC factor would mean the fuel cannot be used to meet the 6% requirement.

Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium are calling for a cap based on ILUC to be applied to both pieces of legislation, the renewables directive and the fuel-quality directive. The UK has also suggested that it supports this approach, though it is expected to clarify its postion on Friday. France and Italy do not want a cap to apply to the fuel-quality directive, but say the cap in the renewables directive should be raised.

The biofuel industry says there is not enough scientific evidence for introducing ILUC factors into EU legislation, a position that has had some support from Poland and other central and eastern European member states.

FEDIOL, the federation of the vegetable oil and protein meal industry, has criticised the report on which the Commission based its proposal as “built on false assumptions”. “The lack of scientific robustness does not support the use of ILUC factors in legislation,” it said.

FEDIOL is opposed to both the inclusion of ILUC factors for reporting purposes and the renewables cap.

The industry says that the Commission has not given proper consideration to the socio-economic impact of the proposal, which it says could destroy the biofuel market. It complains that significant investment has already been made in biofuel based on the 2008 legislation.

But environmental campaign groups say that the damage being caused by the EU’s biofuel policy is now so clear that the Commission must change course. In a letter sent to member states this week, a coalition of groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and T&E called on ministers to strengthen the legislation by limiting the use of crops that cause ILUC in both pieces of legislation. “Most biofuels currently marketed in Europe offer no or limited carbon-emission savings compared to petrol and diesel,” they wrote.

Yesterday (20 February), CE Delft, a consultancy, issued a study showing that Dutch biofuel suppliers, who are obliged to declare the crop sources of biofuel, are cleaner than the EU average. Only the UK and the Netherlands have legal requirements for transparency that oblige fuel blenders to report on the sustainability of their biofuel. The Commission’s proposal would require all member states to introduce such transparency.

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