On Wednesday 13 March, the European Commission presented a delegated act on raw materials carrying a high risk of inducing indirect land use change (ILUC) and on the certification of biomass-resultant biofuels with a low risk of ILUC (see EUROPE 12191/11).
Directive 2018/2001 on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources sets national limits – which will gradually decrease to zero by 2030 – for high ILUC-risk biofuels. An exemption from these limits is provided for biofuels certified as having a low ILUC risk.
ILUC emissions can occur when pasture or agricultural land previously destined for food and feed markets is diverted to the production of fuels from biomass.
The food and feed demand will still need to be satisfied either through intensification of current production or by bringing non-agricultural land into production elsewhere. In the latter case, ILUC (conversion of non-agricultural land into agricultural land to produce food or feed) can lead to the release of greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions can be significant and could negate some or all of the greenhouse gas emission savings of individual biofuels.
The delegated act sets out specific criteria for: - determining the high ILUC-risk feedstock for which a significant expansion of the production area into land with high carbon stock is observed; - certifying low ILUC-risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels.
To determine which raw materials present a high risk of ILUC, the following cumulative criteria shall apply: - the average annual expansion of the global production area of the feedstock since 2008 is greater than 1% and affects more than 100,000 hectares; - the share of such expansion into land with high-carbon stock is greater than 10%.
Parliament and the EU Council have 2 months to raise an objection to the delegated act. If no objections are received, the text will be published in the Official Journal of the EU.
Palm oil. Farm Europe and Transport & Environment (T&E) have criticised the derogations provided for in the delegated act (even if they are now stricter than the document submitted for consultation), as it may result in greater levels of palm oil production. The text provides for a derogation for palm oil produced by small farmers (2 hectares in the delegated act). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)