European Parliament Environment Committee votes for ILUC impacts from biofuels to be measured
Fri 12 July 2013
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MEPs on the European Parliament's Environment Committee have voted to to limit the amount of conventional biofuel that can be used to meet the EU target for renewable transport fuel and have also voted to back the EC's proposal to require companies to measure the amount of indirect land use change (ILUC) their fuels cause.
The LowCVP has published a 'position paper' on indirect land-use change (ILUC) relating to biofuels production (see adjacent link). While LowCVP members believe that biofuels can play an important role in decarbonising the road transport sector they must deliver greenhouse gas (GHG) savings. Regulatory certainty, clarity and longevity and market stability are identified as being essential to encourage investment in biofuels that continue to deliver credible emissions savings, and to support the long-term development of a sustainable second generation biofuels industry.
Under the Renewable Energy and Fuel Quality Directives, the EU has a target that 10% of transport fuel should come from renewable sources. There has been criticism, however, that the target was encouraging the production of biofuel made from food crops, raising food prices and intensifying agriculture. Reports have shown that in some circumstances land use change is causing more emissions than biofuel saves.
The Commission proposed last year that the legislation should be revised, so that from 2020 biofuel derived from food crops or indirectly causing a change of land-use could count for at most half of the 10%. The remainder would come from ‘second-generation' biofuel that is more environmentally friendly.
The Environment Committee voted 43-26 to raise the cap to 5.5%. The figure is a compromise, since the centre-right EPP group wanted the cap to be higher at around 7% or no cap at all. The Parliament's Energy Committee voted last month for a 6.5% cap. Member states are split on the subject.
Reported in European Voice, French liberal MEP Corinne LePage, who is guiding the legislation through the Parliament, defended the need for ILUC factors after the vote. “Just because something is difficult to assess, doesn't mean it doesn't exist,” she said.
European Voice also reported that MEPs were shown an advance copy of a study by the Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) ahead of the vote which concluded that ILUC impacts can negate the emissions savings of biofuel if they remain unaddressed. It also concluded that, if anything, the Commission's proposal underestimates the impact of ILUC.
LePage said the cap and the ILUC factors will not destroy the biofuel industry. “We have to ensure that the European industry is sustainable, and helps to meet the objectives of the legislation,” she said. “I've visited [conventional biofuel] plants, and I saw that these plants were already working on shifting toward second or even third generation biofuels.”
The Brussels-based NGO, Transport and Environment (T&E) praised the Committee's vote. T&E's clean fuels manager Nusa Urbancic said: "It is encouraging to see MEPs in charge of protecting our environment finally addressing the elephant in the room by introducing indirect emissions into the EU’s biofuels policy. This vote is an important step towards truly sustainable transport fuels which genuinely reduce emissions.
"The mechanics of this issue are complicated and ILUC takes a lot of explaining, but the basis of the problem is very simple – the EU should not be subsidising any fuels that do not reduce CO2 emissions. Indirect emissions are an essential part of this, as countless scientific studies have shown."
The next step is for the full European Parliament to vote on the issue in September. The Environment Committee is just one of seven committees who have voted on the Commission’s proposed changes. MEPs on the Energy Committee voted to increase the cap to 6.5% and to delete even reporting of indirect emissions. Although the Environment Committee is the ‘lead’ committee on this issue, other committees can influence the vote in the plenary, and are likely to seek to do so.
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