In a public session, the Council took note of a Presidency progress report on the proposed Directive on indirect land-use change (ILUC) amending the Fuel Quality (98/70/EC) and Renewable Energy (2009/28/EC) Directives. The proposed Directive aims to minimise the impact of indirect land-use change on greenhouse gas emissions and to promote a transition to biofuels that deliver substantial greenhouse gas savings.
The progress report outlines the main issues discussed under the Irish Presidency and how they are or could be addressed with a view to facilitating the development of a Council position.
The Member States generally support the aim of tackling the global occurrence of indirect land-use change resulting from the production of biofuels that compete with food and feed. At the same time, many delegations are concerned about a policy shift that could create uncertainty among investors, jeopardise existing investments and render the achievement of the existing EU renewables objectives more costly and challenging.
The report covers the main issues discussed in the working party, in particular:
- the 5% threshold for conventional biofuels;
- ILUC factors;
- treatment of new installations;
- the bonus for degraded land;
- fraud prevention;
- the review clause and
- delegated acts.
The same report was presented to the TTE (Energy) Council on 7 June.
Policy debates on this proposal were held by the TTE (Energy) Council on 22 February 2013 and the Environment Council on 21 March 2013. The Permanent Representatives Committee decided in December 2012 to set up an ad hoc working party on indirect land-use change to ensure that amendments to the two Directives would be made coherently and consistently.