EU mulls disregarding soy biofuels to prevent deforestation
EU considers excluding soy biofuels from counting towards EU renewables targets as new research finds it results in high indirect land-use change.
IMAGE: Huge soybean crop field in a deforested area of the Amazon rainforest in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Getty Images
The EU’s Renewable Energy Directive caps the use of biofuels made from food and feed crops linked to high indirect land-use change (ILUC) and requires their contribution to renewable energy targets to fall to zero by 2030.
The 2019 ILUC-delegated regulation lays down criteria to determine when feedstocks to produce biofuels have high ILUC-risks, as well as rules for certifying low ILUC-risk fuels.
For a feedstock to be classified as high-ILUC risk, the average annual expansion of the global production area must be higher than 1% and should affect 100,000 hectares. Another criterion is that the share of such expansions into lands with high carbon stocks should be higher than 10%.
According to a recent study released by the EU Commission, oil palm will continue to be classified as a high ILUC-risk feedstock. The report also found that soy meets both criteria for being classified as a high ILUC-risk feedstock.
The expansion of palm oil and soybean production into high-carbon stock land produces ILUC emissions that are so significant that they offset any greenhouse gas savings from using fuels made from these feedstocks instead of fossil fuels, the EU Commission report said.
Non-profit Transport & Environment (T&E) welcomed the EU research, saying it confirms the case for phasing out soy-based biofuels from counting toward renewable energy targets.
It said that while excluding soy would help remove one of the most damaging feedstocks from Europe’s energy mix, rising EU demand for biofuels will intensify competition for alternative feedstocks.
“Other feedstocks associated with high levels of land use change, like sugarcane, remain just below the threshold. This means they can continue to count towards EU renewable targets," T&E said.
By Nachiket Tekawade
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