UK government proposes new measures to encourage sustainable biofuels

The UK's Transport Secretary Douglas Alexander underlined the British government's commitment to sustainable biofuels, as he launched a consultation on an environmental reporting system for this type of fuel and a package of measures to complement the reporting requirement.

The consultation is a key part of work on the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), which means that by 2010, 5% of all the fuel sold on UK forecourts should come from biofuels. This is expected to save 1 million tones of carbon a year, the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the road.

In addition to the consultation, the Secretary of State today announced that:

• from April 2010 the government aims to reward biofuels under the RTFO according to the amount of carbon they save. This will be subject to compatibility with EU and WTO requirements and future consultation on the environmental and economic impacts;
• from April 2011 the government aims to reward biofuels under the RTFO only if they meet appropriate sustainability standards. This will be subject to the same provisos as above and subject to the development of such standards for the relevant feedstocks.
• the government will ask the RTFO Administrator to report every three months on the effectiveness of the RTFO's environmental reporting system, and on the carbon and sustainability effects of the RTFO;
• the government intends to set challenging targets for: the level of greenhouse gas savings we expect to see from biofuels used to meet the RTFO, the proportion of biofuels from feedstock grown to recognised sustainability standards and the amount of information we expect to be included in sustainability reports;
• the government has asked the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership to explore the feasibility of a voluntary labelling scheme, allowing responsible retailers to show that the biofuels they supply are genuinely sustainable. Any scheme would need to be compatible with WTO rules.

Note that the references to the WTO rules imply that such sustainability criteria can not become a new set of protectionist trade barriers blocking the import of competitive biofuels produced in the developing world. Moreover, it is to be expected that very few biofuels produced in either the US or the EU can conform to a criterion that requires these biofuels to reduce carbon emissions. There is as yet no scientific consensus on the greenhouse gas balance of these fuels. Some scientists have found first generation biodiesel and ethanol made from rapeseed and corn to be net carbon contributors or to have very weak balances (here for rapeseed, and for corn).

On the other hand biofuels made from tropical crops, like sugarcane and cassava-based ethanol and sustainably produced biodiesel from palm oil, have a very strong carbon and energy balance, but they may fuel deforestation and partly offset these advantages. Alternative crops like new varieties of sweet sorghum and jatropha curcas, which thrive in non-forest, semi-arid lands may offer the perfect compromise. Other tropical grass and tree species might do so as well and prove better feedstocks for second-generation biofuels than the ones currently used in the UK. There is a large potential for sustainable biofuel trade (earlier post).

The British government has often stated that without bioenergy imports it will not be easy to achieve its biofuels targets. Moreover, it has been investing (together with Brazil) in a few developing countries to help them produce biofuels for export. But amongst key stakeholders there is now a consensus that a comprehensive set of sustainability criteria for all biofuels should be introduced:
biofuels :: energy :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: biomass :: bioenergy :: greenhouse gas balance :: environmental sustainability :: social sustainability :: trade ::

A large number of existing agri-environment and social accountability schemes have been benchmarked against a set of core environmental and social principles, to allow the government to propose a list of "qualifying standards" for RTFO purposes. These are standards that deliver an acceptable level of sustainability assurance. The consultation document suggests that the following standards should initially count as "qualifying standards", although the list will be revised as suitable new standards are developed for different feedstocks:

• Linking Environment and Farming Marque
• Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil
• Sustainable Agriculture Network
• Rainforest Alliance
• Basel Criteria for Soy [*.pdf]
• Forest Stewardship Council
• Social Accountability 8000

On launching the consultation Douglas Alexander said:

Biofuels present an opportunity to address the climate change impact of transport. But we must ensure appropriate safeguards are in place. The UK is leading international debate on this issue. We are one of the first countries to develop a detailed methodology to allow transport fuel suppliers to report in detail on the carbon and sustainability impacts of their biofuels. And the comprehensive package of new measures we are proposing today only strengthens this global leadership role, by making clear our determination to put in place a mandatory sustainability framework for biofuels, putting us at the forefront globally of tackling this important issue.

To receive certificates under the RTFO scheme from April 2008, it is intended that transport fuel suppliers will have to complete a report on the carbon savings offered by their biofuels, as well as on the wider sustainability impacts associated with them. The RTFO Administrator will publish information on the environmental impacts of the RTFO. The consultation sets out the detail of the proposed requirements for these reports.

The consultation closes on 13 September. The RTFO Administrator will publish the final version of the reporting requirements as soon as possible after the RTFO Order has been made.

The approach will be piloted with a number of transport fuel suppliers alongside the public consultation.

The British consultation comes after the Netherlands created a first proposal for a set of biofuels sustainability criteria, earlier this year, the so-called Cramer Criteria. On a conceptual level, some researchers have designed a kind of Green Biofuels Index, measuring the greenhouse gas and energy balance of particular biofuels.

Note that none of the proposals takes social justice nor historical justice into account. Developing countries have often said that the US and European countries have deforested their own forests long ago, which allowed them to create a modern agricultural base which they now might use to grow energy crops - as if this past doesn't count.

This historic deforestation burden not only contributed massively to past greenhouse gas emissions, it also allowed rapid industrialisation. Developing countries think it is unfair that the US and the EU impose criteria on them today, whereas these very countries have a tremendous historic deforestation burden. In fact, the West has become so wealthy because of this highly carbon intensive industrial development, that it has broken the trend of increasing deforestation. In the EU and the US, forest cover is for the first time in centuries increasing again (more here).

A more just proposal for sustainability criteria would add carbon emitted from deforestation in the past, to the actual carbon balance of biofuels produced in the present. On the historic carbon burden of highly industrialised countries, see here.

References:
The consultation documents, including further information on the proposed targets, can be found on the UK's Department for Transport website, here.