eBIO: EC land use modeling not adequate
February 9, 2010
News release posted March 1, 2010
Brussels - An analysis of the working documents and studies made available to the public by the European Commission's Directorate for Energy show that existing models to predict indirect land use changes are not suitable to justify a change in the recently adopted EU biofuel policy, according to European biofuel advocates eBIO.
DG Energy is the first directorate-general that posted almost 80 internal documents on its website last Thursday providing an important insight into DG Energy's extensive work to understand the impact of indirect land use change (ILUC) on the greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels. These documents - from DG Agriculture and DG Energy - include studies, e-mail exchanges and other written communications between European Commission staff as well as communications with external stakeholders.
The documents clearly demonstrate that the models under review have shown important gaps, which make them unsuitable as a basis for regulation against biofuels. It is argued that the models are failing to take into account the effects of new EU legislation on greenhouse gas emission reduction, re-use of abandoned cropland and technological development.
"We welcome the release of these documents and their main message namely that the present modeling work is not rigorous enough to justify an ILUC penalty" said Robert Vierhout, secretary-general, eBIO.
eBIO believes that ILUC measurements should be based on undisputed scientific evidence. As there is widespread disagreement among scientists and economists about the science, assumptions and parameters used to determine and model land use change, eBIO urges the EU to reject the ILUC concept until a reliable scientific consensus is reached.
SOURCE: eBIO
Brussels - An analysis of the working documents and studies made available to the public by the European Commission's Directorate for Energy show that existing models to predict indirect land use changes are not suitable to justify a change in the recently adopted EU biofuel policy, according to European biofuel advocates eBIO.
DG Energy is the first directorate-general that posted almost 80 internal documents on its website last Thursday providing an important insight into DG Energy's extensive work to understand the impact of indirect land use change (ILUC) on the greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels. These documents - from DG Agriculture and DG Energy - include studies, e-mail exchanges and other written communications between European Commission staff as well as communications with external stakeholders.
The documents clearly demonstrate that the models under review have shown important gaps, which make them unsuitable as a basis for regulation against biofuels. It is argued that the models are failing to take into account the effects of new EU legislation on greenhouse gas emission reduction, re-use of abandoned cropland and technological development.
"We welcome the release of these documents and their main message namely that the present modeling work is not rigorous enough to justify an ILUC penalty" said Robert Vierhout, secretary-general, eBIO.
eBIO believes that ILUC measurements should be based on undisputed scientific evidence. As there is widespread disagreement among scientists and economists about the science, assumptions and parameters used to determine and model land use change, eBIO urges the EU to reject the ILUC concept until a reliable scientific consensus is reached.
SOURCE: eBIO
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