The UK has ample potential to use wastes and residues for advanced biofuels and create jobs in this emerging industry – but safeguards are key to ensure this is done in an environmentally sustainable way.
How can we meet the different and often conflicting demands we make on our limited supply of rural land in Europe? A more strategic approach to the way in which land is used is needed than has been the case in the past. This report for DG Environment looks at the data, the challenges and the policy options for Europe.
Using wastes and residues for biofuels has many advantages. But ensuring sustainability and including safeguards in EU legislation are critical issues.
Up to 2020 greater use of renewable electricity is the leading alternative to biofuels to reduce the carbon intensity of car and rail transport fuels. To realise this potential requires a mix of responses, including: increasing the decarbonisation of existing transport fuels; improving the energy efficiency of vehicles; and changing the way vehicles are used.
IEEP and WWF join forces to define criteria and principles to guide the mapping of appropriate land use to ensure sustainable biofuel crops.
The European Commission’s proposal on indirect land use change – what’s in it for mitigating emissions? Read IEEP’s latest Biofuel ExChange briefing.
Biochar has the potential to both mitigate greenhouse gases, and to act as an adaptation measure in terms of responding to the impacts of climate change. Based on its compatibility with the appropriate soil properties, it could increase the resilience of soil to erosion.
EU biofuel use will increase the global prices of agricultural commodities, most notably oilseeds and vegetable oils. This requires close attention by policy makers.
This benefit Assessment Manual, originally for internal use, has been turned into a Benefit Assessment Manual for policy makers and experts for wider dissemination and provides an understanding of the methodologies applied for the country benefit assessments.
This IEEP report, commissioned by Novozymes, considers the existing barriers, environmental risks and opportunities and the potential agricultural policy stimuli needed in order to mobilise cereal straw for advanced biofuel production in the EU.
The Renewables Obligation (RO) is the UK’s keynote policy for the support of renewable electricity; but currently it fails to reflect the diversity of bioenergy feedstocks. IEEP is calling on the UK government to amend the RO’s bands to allow elevated support – an ‘environmental bonus’ – for the most environmentally responsible bioenergy solutions.
A new IEEP report outlining how to develop a UK bioenergy sector that mitigates environmental risks and promotes win-win situations for renewables deployment and biodiversity.
As part of the Biomass Futures project, IEEP has conducted a survey among European policy makers on implementing bioenergy policy, identifying challenges and opportunities.
Ian Skinner and Bettina Kretschmer explain the complex interaction mechanisms between the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive and the Fuel Quality Directive.
A new IEEP briefing discusses some of the modelling work that is undertaken in support of quantifying the land use change impact of biofuel use.
Bogdan Atanasiu’s analysis of National Renewable Energy Action Plans reveals that more than half of the renewable energy which EU Member States expect to consume annually by 2020 will consist of bioenergy.
IEEP organised a dialogue around the delivery of the sustainability criteria set out in the Renewable Energy Directive ...
IEEP Analysis Briefing: Energy
IEEP has submitted a response to the European Commission's recent consultation on requirements for a potential EU sustainability scheme for biomass used for energy purposes (separate from transport biofuels ...
This is the seventeenth edition of IEEP's insert into the IUCN's Regional Office for Europe newsletter. Brussels in Brief offers readers an informative and illuminating insight into the EU, its institutions ...