all biofuels used in the UK last year, and a third of that was produced according to the RSPO’s standard.
The majority of palm oil is still being produced without any attempt to demonstrate its sustainability, but ‘good’ palm oil is now being produced under the guidance of RSPO
with petrol and diesel, making an impor- tant contribution to reducing climate change inducing emissions in the transport sector. The savings are roughly equivalent to taking
half a million vehicles off the road, or making Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast car free. The carbon figures reflect the directly meas-
urable savings biofuels offer but do not take into account the potential impact from indi- rect land use change (ILUC). The European Commission is due to report by the end of this year on how ILUC should be addressed for meeting renewable fuel targets. One of the advantages of having a regula- tor collecting data on the sustainability per- formance of a key sector is the ability for us to provide clear, dispassionate and factual information that cuts through the controversy and heated debate. We want all biofuels to be
sustainable and can highlight those that are achieving this goal and those that are failing in a measured, balanced way.
Take palm oil, for example. It has tended to hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. For a brief period, papers were full of reports of forests being felled in Malaysia and Indonesia to clear land for expanding palm plantations, causing environmental disaster and threaten- ing many species including the Orang-utan. It’s still a problem area; the majority of palm oil is still being produced without any attempt to demonstrate its sustainability. But despite that, there is now some ‘good’ palm oil which we believe is being produced with respect for workers and the environment, under the guidance of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Our figures show that palm oil accounted for just 6% of
The RTFO and RFA have put the UK ahead of the curve when it comes to pushing forward the sustainable business agenda. You now have this industry with a significant turn- over with a far higher degree of accountability than could be found in most other sectors. In the past, suppliers might have only known that they had bought some biofuel and it was sat in a tanker anchored outside Rotterdam. It would have been possible that they had no idea about the feedstock or origin of the fuel. Thanks to the RTFO, we now tend to have a far better idea of where an individual batch of biofuel came from, what it is made from and the conditions under which it was produced. We can also look at likely green- house gas emissions arising from its produc- tion and supply, from field to pump. We can see that transport of fuel or feed- stocks accounts for a relatively small percent- age of the overall emissions, demonstrating that importing ‘good’ biofuels from far flung corners of the earth, can still be sustainable. Bioethanol from Brazilian sugar cane is a good example. Brazil decided decades ago to reduce its reliance on fossil fuel imports and now has a mature, regulated biofuel industry. Much of the exported bioethanol is produced in line with recognised environmental stand- ards and this accounts for a far greater share of the biofuel used in the UK than palm oil. Looking to the future, European legisla- tion will see all EU Member States expected to source a significant share of their transport fuels as biofuel, and that biofuel will have to meet certain sustainability criteria and a 35% minimum greenhouse gas saving. These will include mandatory social and environmental targets, not voluntary.
The Renewable Fuels Directive (RED) calls
for a 10% reduction in carbon emissions from transport by 2020 and while alternative tech- nologies such as electric and hybrid vehicles will have a role to play, the overwhelming majority of this reduction is expected to be met by biofuel blended into the petrol and diesel the every-day motorist is getting out of the pumps at every filling stations on road- sides throughout the continent. This is likely to lead to increased competition for the most sustainable biofuel, and increase pressure on producers to take their environmental and social responsibilities seriously.
Dr Keeley Bignal is carbon and sustainabil- ity reporting manager at sustainable biofuel regulator the Renewable Fuels Agency
renewablefuelsagency.gov.uk
Sustainable Business | October 2010 | 27
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