Biofuels From Deforested Land To Fail EU Standards

Pete Harrison, PlanetArk 10 Jun 10;

Palm oil grown on recently deforested land is unlikely to be acceptable for use in European biodiesel, a draft report from the European Commission shows.

The decision aims to curb any environmental damage from biofuels and could limit future export markets for Asian producers such as Indonesia's PT SMART, Singapore's Wilmar and Malaysia's Sime and IOI Corp.

The European Union aims to get 10 percent of its road fuels from renewable sources by 2020, and 7 percentage points are expected to come from land-using crops such as grains, palms or sugar cane.

But critics charge that the multi-billion-dollar market will compete with food crops, forcing up grain prices and encouraging farmers to expand their land by hacking into tropical forests.

The EU's executive arm has responded with a set of environmental standards, which will be announced by Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger Thursday.

The development of the rules has been closely watched by biofuels exporters such as Malaysia and Indonesia, especially as early drafts appeared to remove all barriers to palm plantation expansion by defining the plantations as another type of forest.

But a more recent draft seen by Reuters Wednesday ruled that out.

"Any change in land use, including for example a change from forest to palm plantation, must be taken into account in the calculation of the greenhouse gas impact," it says.

An EU source said the draft was not the final version to be launched by Oettinger Thursday, but its meaning was the same.

"You cannot chop down forests and convert them to palm plantations and use those fuels to meet the EU's biofuel targets," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"Oettinger is trying to make certain that the EU biofuels strategy is credible."

(Editing by Dale Hudson)

EU sets tight biofuel standards
Robert Wielaard, Associated Press Yahoo News 10 Jun 10;

BRUSSELS – The European Union's top energy official set out tough standards for producing biofuels sold in the EU, demanding producers meet strict environmental criteria.

EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger put forward the world's "most stringent" certification regime to make "sure our biofuels meet the highest environmental standards." Biofuel makers must prove they do not create greenhouse gas emissions or destroy forests or wetlands.

The rules take effect immediately.

They foresee a regime of certificates to guarantee that all biofuels — whether grown in the 27-nation European Union or imported — are sustainably produced on land already used for farming in early 2008.

Production must be independently monitored to see how much fertilizer is used to grow the crop, how much to process it into fuel and how much to transport it to the market.

Only biofuels that represent at least a 35 percent saving in greenhouse gas use compared to oil or diesel would be allowed and would get financial help from governments, such as low taxes or direct payments to suppliers.

The European Commission says it could revoke the certificates at any time biofuel suppliers are not providing truthful information.

About 26 percent of biodiesel and 31 percent of bioethanol used in the EU in 2007 was imported — mostly from Brazil and the United States.

Environmental groups took a dim view of the plan.

They said it will not tackle the most acute problem: that the move toward more biomass production drives deforestation, damages the environment, creates greenhouse gas emissions and encourages land-grabbing in Asia and South America.

The EU has set a target that by 2020 at least 10 percent of transport fuel comes from biofuels — up from 3.4 percent in 2008 and 0.5 percent in 2003.

Biofuels are mostly bioethanol made from sugar and cereals and biodiesel from vegetable oils.

"Europe's policy on biofuels is inherently unsustainable," said Adrian Bebb, food and agriculture campaign coordinator for Friends of the Earth Europe.

"The EU should abandon this folly and invest in genuine energy reductions in the transport sector."

The environmental group Greenpeace said the certification scheme does nothing about the displacement of agriculture that happens when farmers move crops or cattle ranching elsewhere to make room for biofuels for EU clients.

To make sure most of its biofuel reduces real greenhouse gas emissions, the European Commission will create a system to calculate how much greenhouse gas is used to produce and transport the fuel until it arrives at the gas pump.