What is ILUC?
The production of biofuels can indirectly cause additional deforestation and land conversion. When existing agricultural land is turned over to biofuel production, agriculture has to expand elsewhere to meet the existing (and ever-growing) demand for crops for food and feed. This expansion happens at the expense of forests, grasslands, peatlands, wetlands, and other carbon-rich ecosystems. This results in substantial increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the soil and removed vegetation (e.g. deforestation). An accurate measure of the sustainability of biofuels must account for ILUC.
Since the very first EU Renewable Energy Directive, many scientific reports were already indicating that ILUC, due to increased biofuel production, has a high potential to outweigh any GHG benefits from the use of biofuels. Since the laws were passed, scientific evidence has accumulated further.
This is a compilation of the findings of a number of major reports on biofuels that examine the issue of ILUC and GHG emissions calculations for biofuels. Drawing from a large amount of scientific evidence, it shows that accounting for ILUC in the emissions calculations of biofuels is appropriate.
Already back in 2011, over 200 scientists wrote to the European Commission calling for policies to take account of indirect land use change:
“Without addressing land use change, the European Union’s target for renewable energy in transport may fail to deliver genuine carbon savings in the real world. It could end up as merely an exercise on paper that promotes widespread deforestation and higher food prices.”