EU proposal for directive go back on CO2 reduction target

To speed up the development process of biofuels produced from waste – a fuel that is still not produced commercially anywhere – the proposal for directive, which was leaked last week, suggests that 1 litre of biofuel produced from waste should be allowed to count as 4 litres of biofuel in the member stats’ environmental accounts.  

If a member state in 2020 uses 2.5 % waste based biofuel in the transport sector, it will, by using this method of calculation, be enough to reach the EU target of 10 % renewable energy,

writes journalist Lars Attrup in Jyllands-Posten.

This increases the value of so-called 2nd generation biofuels, but does nothing to lower CO2 emissions and reduce the climate changes that are the reason for the use of renewable energy in transport fuels. 

All 1st generation biofuels lumped together

According to Jyllands-Posten, Connie Hedegaard has long warned that the production of certain types of biofuels produced from so-called food crops, have negative side effects. 

“It has now been documented in analyses which show that the production of biodiesel made from rapeseed, palm oil and soya cause a shortage in the market for vegetable oils, and thereby lead to an expansion of the global agricultural area. The result of this is increased CO2 emissions, which equalize the positive effect of biodiesel,” says Connie Hedegaard to Jyllands-Posten.

Because of this, the EU Commission has now made a draft proposal suggesting that biofuels produced from so-called food crops must not exceed 5 % of the energy consumption in the transport sector. 

The problem is that it is a political decision what is classified as food crops and what is classified as waste. This means that hveiti’s production, where the raw material is winter wheat, will be affected by this new proposal, if it is turned into legislation. The proposal does not take into account that winter wheat is not suitable for food production, and that it is already today used for feed and industrial purposes. 

In the same way, it does not take into account that hveiti will not only be a bioethanol production facility, but a biorefinery for the production of bioethanol, protein feed and fibres used for food – all produced in the same process. In this way, all parts of the raw material are used, and thereby contribute to a freeing up of agricultural land in other parts of the world – land that can be used for the production of food. 

Rational sustainability criteria

When the EU Commission suggests a proposal for directive like this one, which does not look at CO2 reduction capacity, but only at raw material and technology, it does not only ruin business for the biofuel producers that cannot honour the sustainability criteria, but also ruins the business for the ones that have a business model that is both environmentally and economically sustainable. 

If we are to achieve a sustainable production of biofuels and a reduction in CO2 emissions, we have to create an all-inclusive system with a starting point in the CO2 reduction capacity. A system that incorporates all the products produced in the same process, and not just the biofuel, as the co-products from the biofuel production have a high value on the market and help free up agricultural land in other parts of the world.