Soy biofuels will no longer count towards EU renewable targets, with new EU Commission research confirming they contribute significantly to deforestation
The EU will phase out soy in an attempt to curb the use of biofuels linked to indirect land-use change (ILUC), a significant cause of CO2 emissions and biodiversity loss, new report findings published by the EU Commission show. With biofuels consumption globally on the rise, the report’s findings demonstrate the deforestation risk of promoting food and feed crops for fuel, says T&E.
Cian Delaney, biofuels campaigner at T&E, said: “Soy biofuels are twice as bad for the planet as fossil diesel. Phasing them out is the right way to go and ensures that American, Argentinian and Brazilian soy does not end up in European tanks, especially now that the EU has signed the Mercosur trade deal. But other feedstocks associated with high levels of land use change, like sugarcane, remain just below the threshold. This means they can continue to count towards EU renewable targets. Food and feed crop biofuels are a bad idea, it’s time to move beyond burning.”
Biofuels have been widely promoted across the EU since the adoption of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) in 2009. In 2019, the introduction of the high ILUC Delegated Act confirmed a phase-out of palm biofuels by 2030. Soy will now be subjected to the same fate. While this does remove one of the most damaging feedstocks from Europe’s energy mix, growing EU demand for biofuels means that the scramble for feedstocks will still intensify. (....)