Reality check – 10 things you didn’t know about EU biofuels policy
The negotiations of the new Renewable Energy Directive for 2020-2030 have re-launched the debate on renewable energy in transport, notably on food-based biofuels. The impacts of the EU biofuels policy on climate and environment are poorly informed and understood.
This briefing provides a reality check on 10 things that decision makers and citizens do not know about biofuels.
- Four in every five litres of biofuel in the EU is biodiesel
- Around half of EU production of crop biodiesel is based on imports of feedstock, not crops grown by EU farmers
- A third of EU crop biodiesel is made from palm oil, making drivers the top consumers of palm oil in Europe
- EU biodiesel production growth since 2009 has been based on imports and waste oils
- Of all EU rapeseed oil, 60% is consumed in the biodiesel sector
- Palm biodiesel is three times worse for the climate than fossil diesel
- Phasing out palm oil alone is not going to fix the biofuels policy
- The co-production of animal feed cannot justify the support for crop biofuels
- There is an acute lack of transparency about the biofuels used in the EU with data either unavailable or very hard to access
- Most drivers don’t know and are not told they are filling up their car tanks with vegetable oils and other food crops
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