European Union Policy on Bioenergy and the Role of Sustainability Criteria and Certification Systems

The EU has set ambitious targets to raise the share of renewable energies, particularly biofuels. This article, written by Stephanie Schlegel and Timo Kaphengst, discusses the role that bioenergy plays in the European policy context and the approach the EU is currently following to ensure the sustainability of biofuels. It addresses the limits of the chosen approach, concluding that certification schemes can not serve as the only safeguard for sustainable bioenergy, but need to be complemented by other tools and policies.

With an increasingly controversial public debate and more scientific evidence about the downsites of biofuels, recently the European Union's biofuel targets have been bound to the condition that they have to be produced sustainable. Therefore, the European Commission is currently developing sustainability criteria for biofuels.

Establishing certification schemes is a possible strategy to ensure that bioenergy crops are produced sustainably. However, many questions with regard to the design and implementation of sustainability criteria and certification schemes remain unsolved.