The European Commission has submitted for consultation, on Friday 8 February, for one month, the draft delegated act establishing criteria for the certification of biofuels derived from low risk biomass to induce ILUC (Indirect Land Use Change).
The Commission will then adopt the draft delegated act and the Council and European Parliament will have two months to decide.
EU organisations and cooperatives (Copa-Cogeca) have already criticised this text (see EUROPE 12189). Organisations are concerned that the directive may have some loopholes that would allow imports of high-risk biofuels from ILUC to be certified as low-risk. The new Renewable Energy Directive, adopted at the end of 2018, provides for the phasing out of these ILUC high risk biofuels from 2023 (until 2030).
The NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) noted that, through this proposed delegated act, the European Commission has recognised that palm oil cultivation leads to significant deforestation and that biodiesel produced from palm oil cannot be taken into account to achieve the EU's 'green' fuel objectives.
"However, under mounting pressure from the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia”, the Commission has introduced several loopholes, including an exemption for additional palm oil produced in independent small plantations (less than five hectares) or produced on 'unused' land, T&E regrets.
This NGO is concerned that as a result of these exemptions, the EU could continue to use the same amount of palm oil in diesel as it does today. T&E emphasises that the size of a plantation has no relation to the risk of deforestation or the changes in land use.
"Moreover, the business model of palm oil giants such as in Malaysia, for example, is precisely the use of small lots of land toiled by workers who sell to a single big mill controlled by corporations", says Transport & Environment. And the organisation concludes that there is a risk that the classification of palm oil as an unsustainable biofuel "may not be as effective as all that".
See the draft delegated act: https://bit.ly/2WX0YzF. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)