These would recognise the specific indirect greenhouse gas emissions estimated to occur due to displaced agricultural cultivation from crops grown for fuel.
“Obviously ethanol will benefit from the introduction of ILUC factors as they have lower values and biodiesel and feedstocks used for them might not meet the sustainability criteria anymore,” said Eric Gall, a spokesman for MEP Corinne Lepage, the Parliament's rapporteur.
The report, to be launched today, says that the EU’s proposed 5% cap on biofuels’ share of the transport mix by 2020 should differentiate between the best and worst performers, when greenhouse gas calcuations are take into account.
EurActiv understands that Lepage’s report will propose introducing sustainability criteria which do this in both the Renewable Energy Directive and the Fuel Quality Directive.
Isabelle Maurizi, project manager for the European Biodiesel Board, told EurActiv yesterday (16 April) that ILUC was “a young science”, and “too immature” to underpin legislation.
But Lepage indicates that she considers it robust enough to be integrated into European law.
At the same time, in order to protect investments, a “grandfathering clause” is proposed until 2017, which would exempt a quantity of biofuels from the ILUC legislation, so long as their market share stands below the 2010 production level, when biofuels had a 4.27% market share. Eighty percent of that is made up of biodiesel.
As ethanol would still meet the sustainability criteria despite ILUC, it would not be capped.
The grandfathering clause will be extended from 2018 to 2020, measured against 2008 production levels. But public subsidies should stop in 2018 for biofuels that do not bring significant reductions, LePage's report says.
For "advanced” or second-generation biofuels, the report advocates a safeguard clause for woody biomass and agricultural residues. The proposal would be linked to the Framework Directive on Wastes so as to combat fraud, for example the use of cooking oils in biofuels blends.
A multiple counting proposal by the Commission is left in the legislation, while a sub-target of 1.5 % for the use of biofuels in providing electricity for transport is slated.
As an energy efficiency measure, Lepage also proposes a 12% reduction in total energy use in 2020, compared against current projected levels.
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