Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels launches new certification system to ensure environmental and social integrity
Wed 23 March 2011
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The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) – a wide stakeholder partnership representing biofuels producers, blenders, users and others – has announced the launch of a new certification system which aims to ensure that biofuels demonstrate compliance with stringent social and environmental criteria.
The RSB says that Biofuels have the potential to contribute to climate change mitigation but their production shall not be at the expense of ecosystems or human rights, including food security.
Formed in 2007, the 120-member RSB brings together farmers, industries, NGOs and governments to get a broad consensus on the social and environmental requirements to ensure sustainable biofuel production.
The RSB says that the new certification system received provisional recognition by the German Government on March 18. The scheme will provide the assurances operators need to guarantee the sustainability and traceability of their feedstocks and fuels. This can put them on a path towards compliance and certification for access to the EU other regulated markets.
Juan Marco Alvarez, Director of the Economy and Environmental Governance group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said: “The RSB standard is the result of a 4-year effort building a global consensus of over 120 organizations from farmers and biofuel producers to refiners, regulators, civil society and inter-governmental organizations. The RSB has elevated the role of social and environmental safeguards, emphasizing the critical aspects of sustainability in the biofuels sector. It is now ready to start making it achievable.”
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