EU’s RED Driven by ‘Emotion’

Those following the palm oil debate in Europe know that the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) has been used for years as a tool to protect domestic oilseeds by restricting market access for imported vegetable oils.

Previous versions of the RED have included obvious and at times incredible attempts to discriminate against palm oil: however, all had been dismissed as anti-scientific, unworkable and contradictory to facts.

That the RED is anti-scientific is widely known, but this has now been confirmed by the most unlikely of sources – the European Commission (EC) itself.

On Oct 12, EurActiv.com quoted Marie Donnelly, the EC’s Director of Renewables, Research, and Energy Efficiency, as saying at a conference: “We cannot just be led by economic models and scientific theories […], we have to be very sensitive to the reality of citizens’ concerns, sometimes even if these concerns are emotive rather than factual […] or scientific.”

She added that the first concern regarding conventional biofuels is a purely emotive reaction to ‘food versus fuel’: “There are many people in Europe who feel that if we take food and put in our tanks and cars, we are taking food from people who are starving elsewhere in the world.”

It is important to take a moment to consider the implications of this statement. It reveals that the EU accepts that its flagship emissions-reduction, renewable energy policy is not based on facts or science. This is a damning indictment of the weakness and the discrimination of the policy-making process.

The admission – which confirms what has been known to be true in any case – is of greater concern because, in some important ways, the RED has worked well. An important area of achievement has been in the transport and energy generation sectors, where imported palm biodiesel has been used as a renewable energy source to great effect.

The use of palm biodiesel in Europe has increased because:

1. Palm oil is an incredibly cost-effective commodity. Its yield is superior to that of competing oilseeds, such as rapeseed. Rapeseed produces about 0.79 tonnes of oil per ha; palm oil produces 4 tonnes per ha.
   
   

   The incredible efficiency and productivity of palm oil leads to cost benefits for businesses and consumers in Europe – not to mention environmental benefits, as far less land needs to be used to produce the oil.

2. Malaysian palm biodiesel meets stringent sustainability standards both at home and abroad. Malaysia has a world-leading palm oil sector, with strict government and industry regulation. The Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil standard aims to cover all domestic production, and is a guarantee of quality and sustainability.
   
   

   To qualify for biofuel imports under the RED, Malaysian palm oil must meet further sustainability criteria, in the form of certification schemes that are recognised by the EC. Malaysian producers have no problem with meeting demanding criteria, such as those under Germany’s ISCC certification.