Flawed empirical calculations and wrong assumptions on greenhouse gas emissions make the European Union's renewable energy policy biased against non-European biofuel producers, including those of palm-based biodiesel, according to Gernot Pehnelt, director of independent research and consulting institute GlobEcon in Germany.
Flawed empirical calculations and wrong assumptions on greenhouse gas
emissions make the European Union's renewable energy policy biased against
non-European biofuel producers, including those of palm-based biodiesel,
according to Gernot Pehnelt, director of independent research and consulting
institute GlobEcon in
Germany
.
According to an E.U. directive, biofuels must result in greenhouse gas
emissions reductions of at least 35% compared with fossil fuels in 2009 and
rising over time to 50% by 2017, creating a market for at least 23 million
metric tons of biofuels annually.
Under the proposed renewable energy directive, biofuel producers in the E.U.
are able to claim higher greenhouse gas emissions savings than biofuel
producers outside the region, said Pehnelt.
"It is particularly problematic since any reasonable emissions budgeting
comparison showed palm-derived biofuel is less carbon-intensive than those
produced elsewhere, including
Europe
,"
said Pehnelt, who is also affiliated with the European Centre for International
Political Economy.
"The E.U. has embedded protectionist measures into the directive at the
behest of anti-development environmentalists and the uncompetitive European
biofuels industry. These measures set unfair values on greenhouse gas savings
for foreign biofuels, thus precluding market access," he said.
Most life-cycle analysis carried out by researchers estimated greenhouse gas
emissions savings of 55% for palm-oil based biodiesel, but the E.U.'s
calculation, done by its scientific and technical research arm the Joint
Research Centre, showed the use of palm-oil based biodiesel failed the 35%
requirement, as it achieved only a 19% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
The life-cycle assessments carried out on palm oil showed a wide variance in
greenhouse gas emissions savings as data used by the JRC were based on old
data.
The proposed directive, which will come into effect at the end of the year,
also requires that sustainable biofuels should be produced with "no damage
to sensitive or important ecosystems."
As palm oil is widely criticized by environmental groups and blamed for
contributing to environmental degradation in
Malaysia
and
Indonesia
, some
buyers may prefer to source other oils that are less controversial, palm-based
biodiesel producers fear.
Europe
's push for the use of renewable fuels in the
transport sector has created one of the world's largest biofuel markets, with
demand from the region estimated around 10 billion liters (3.5 million tons) in
2009.
Though palm oil-based biodiesel exports from
Malaysia
rose
20% or around 45,000 tons to 227,457 tons in 2009, that figure is abysmally low
compared with the increase in general demand, as requirements under the
directive are limiting palm-based biodiesel's access to the European market.
"The commission is committed to reducing
Europe
's
carbon emissions. It is clear that the E.U. can't meet its own biofuel needs,
so there is room for imports (of biodiesel). We are not against imports (of
biodiesel), but the commission wants to ensure this is good for the environment
and for trade as well," Marlene Holzner, spokeswoman for Energy
Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, told Dow Jones Newswires, in response to this
article.
But there is a ray of hope after a recent study showed the E.U. recently started
referring to oil palm plantations as "continuously forested areas," a
move industry experts consider positive for palm-oil based biodiesel in
Europe
.
A recent study by the International Food Policy Institute, commissioned by the
Directorate General for Trade, under the European Commission, found palm oil to
be the most efficient feedstock for biodiesel, as it produces byproducts and
has an oil yield six times higher than comparable products such as rapeseed.
"All these studies have different results. We do not comment on the
content of the studies. Once studies on the subjects are finalized, the
European Commission is will issue a report by the end of 2010," Holzner
said.
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