The compatibility of EU biofuel policies with global sustainability and the WTO

The EU's Renewable Energy Directive (2009/28) requires that by 2020 biofuels should account for at least 10% of transport fuel consumption. EU legislation sets out sustainability criteria for biofuels to qualify for this target and procedures for verifying that they are met. Using the AGLINK-COSIMO model, we investigate the impacts of the biofuel target on global trade flows and land use, both under the current biofuel tariff regime and assuming zero EU tariffs for biofuels. The EU¿s 2020 transport fuel target increases the global area of agricultural crops by 0.9%. With zero tariffs, the extra global land requirement is 21% smaller, but a larger share of it falls outside the EU. This outcome sharpens the issue of how the EU¿s unilateral sustainability criteria can be imposed given current international trade rules.

BURRELL Alison;  GAY Stephan;  KAVALLARI Aikaterini; 

2012-04-20

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING

JRC61342

0378-5920,   

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9701.2011.01430.x/abstract,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC61342,   

10.1111/j.1467-9701.2011.01430.x,