European Union Policy on Bioenergy and the Role of Sustainability Criteria and Certification Systems
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Stephanie Schlegel
The EU has set ambitious targets to raise the share of renewable energies, particularly biofuels. With an increasingly controversial public debate and more scientific evidence about the downsites of biofuels, recently the European Unions biofuel targets have been bound to the condition that they have to be produced sustainable. Therefore the European Commission is currently developing sustainability criteria for biofuels.Establishing certification schemes is a possible strategy to ensure that bioenergy crops are produced in a sustainable manner. However, many questions with regard to the design and implementation of sustainability criteria and certification schemes remain unsolved.This article discusses the role that bioenergy plays in the European policy context and the approach the EU is currently following in order to ensure the sustainability of biofuels. It addresses the limits of the chosen approach, concluding that certification schemes can not serve as the only safeguard for sustainable bioenergy, but need to be complemented by other tools and policies.
©2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Explorations in Biofuels Economics, Policy, and History: Introduction to the Special Issue
- Policy Alternatives for the Future Biofuels Industry
- Ethanol: No Free Lunch
- Fuel Ethanol Subsidies and Farm Price Support
- Estimating the Welfare Effects of U.S. Distortions in the Ethanol Market Using a Partial Equilibrium Trade Model
- Ethanol Expansion in the Food versus Fuel Debate: How Will Developing Countries Fare?
- European Union Policy on Bioenergy and the Role of Sustainability Criteria and Certification Systems
- Biofuels Policies in Asian Countries: Impact of the Expanded Biofuels Programs on World Agricultural Markets
- Potential Land Use Implications of a Global Biofuels Industry
- Technical and Financial Feasibility Analysis of Distributed Bioprocessing Using Regional Biomass Pre-Processing Centers
- Fueling the Automobile: An Economic Exploration of Early Adoption of Gasoline over Ethanol
Articles in the same Issue
- Article
- Explorations in Biofuels Economics, Policy, and History: Introduction to the Special Issue
- Policy Alternatives for the Future Biofuels Industry
- Ethanol: No Free Lunch
- Fuel Ethanol Subsidies and Farm Price Support
- Estimating the Welfare Effects of U.S. Distortions in the Ethanol Market Using a Partial Equilibrium Trade Model
- Ethanol Expansion in the Food versus Fuel Debate: How Will Developing Countries Fare?
- European Union Policy on Bioenergy and the Role of Sustainability Criteria and Certification Systems
- Biofuels Policies in Asian Countries: Impact of the Expanded Biofuels Programs on World Agricultural Markets
- Potential Land Use Implications of a Global Biofuels Industry
- Technical and Financial Feasibility Analysis of Distributed Bioprocessing Using Regional Biomass Pre-Processing Centers
- Fueling the Automobile: An Economic Exploration of Early Adoption of Gasoline over Ethanol
