Decision to stall second ILUC reading hailed by biodiesel board

The European Biodiesel Board has applauded a decision, via a vote by the European Parliament’s environment committee this October, to stall a proposal to limit Europe’s use of food-based fuel crops.

French MEP Corinne Lepagewas reportedly due to begin negotiations with EU states for a second-reading procedure of the bill. Below is a statement issued by the EBB:

‘The European parliament ENVI committee refused to give ILUC rapporteur Lepage a mandate to start negotiations with the Council of the EU in view of an early second reading.

‘We, that represent the main advanced and conventional biofuels industry in Europe, take good note of the EP ENVI vote stopping a new attempt to come to hasty decisions on the ILUC file.’

The EBB believes this vote comes as a result of growing concerns over emotionally pushed attempts to progress in EU ILUC ruling and that ‘months of excessive pressures to hurry up crucial decisions on EU industrial policy, generated an opposite effect and the ENVI majority which supported Ms Lepage’s report last July in ENVI has disappeared’.

‘After the publication of up-to-date authoritative studies on ILUC, a widening range of decision makers supports a more prudent and open-minded approach,’ adds Raffaello Garofalo, EBB secretary general. ‘Even MEPs close to Ms Lepage realised that early second reading would not have provided sufficient time to assess the relevance of science used in policy.’

The EBB statement continued:

‘Recent scientific inputs have shown that further investment into research on ILUC modelling, elasticity and data is needed. By correcting yield assumptions, based on FAO historical trends and forecasts, the French Institute on Agricultural Research (INRA) concluded ILUC factors for biodiesel would amount to around 10gCO2eq/MJ. This represents an 80% decrease compared to the fatal 55g set by the highly contested IFRPI findings and set in the current proposal.

‘A GTAP study performed by a US scientific team of experts further estimated ILUC values to 2g due to accurate analysis of land conversion. Even international ISO representatives are raising important doubts on legislative ruling based on ILUC modelling results which show a room for incertitude of 300% among various studies.’