The RFA’s performance and sustainability targets are designed to ensure biofuels in the UK’s transport fuel system will reduce greenhouse
gases and not increase them.
Ed Gallagher, RFA chairman, said: “There are good and bad biofuels and this scheme provides a mechanism to distinguish between them.”
The three assessment targets are:
■ That the company provides at least half the data the agency asks for
■ That the biofuels reduce carbon emissions by more than 40%
■ That they can show that 30% of the biofuels they use meet four environmental standards for sustainability.
They are:
■ What the feedstock is e.g. soy, rapeseed, palm oil
■ The biofuel’s country of origin
■ Which sustainability certificates the crops received when grown
■ What the land the crops are grown on was used for in 2004.
Reporting to the Renewable Fuels Agency “to the best of their knowledge” is mandatory for the oil companies.
If proposed changes under the EU’s renewables directive are approved, it could become mandatory by 2010 to show that all biofuels are sustainable. |
