The expected decrease in the use of palm oil in diesel cars as a result of the revised European directive on renewable energies (2018/2001) could lead to a doubling or even quadrupling of the use of soybean oil in biofuels in Europe by 2030, according to a study by the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) published on 8 November.
The NGO fears that the vacuum left by palm oil in the European biofuel market will be filled by increased European imports of soybeans, leading to deforestation on an unprecedented scale in tropical forests and wetlands.
The study also estimates that the share of recent soybean expansion on land with a high carbon stock (e.g. forests) is above 10%, the threshold set by EU rules at which a biofuel crop is considered unsustainable.
T&E therefore calls on the EU to change its legislation. “The European Commission has already decided palm diesel will no longer count as green. It should now do the same for soy diesel ”, said Cristina Mestre, head of biofuels at T&E.
In 2019, some two billion litres of soybean oil-based biofuels were consumed in the EU, according to the NGO.
See the study: https://bit.ly/36CrhB9 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)