Legal Analysis Of The European Union Sustainability Criteria For Biofuels

Abstract

This paper provides a legal analysis and review of the European Union (EU)
sustainability criteria for biofuels, presented in Directive 2009/28/EC. The
paper discusses the EU sustainability criteria as a tool that could be efficiently utilized to operationalize and implement the concepts of sustainable
development and sustainability in an industrial setting.
The results of the analysis highlight that to safeguard the sustainable
quality of biofuels and their production, the list of the EU sustainability
criteria should be elaborated further. Other criteria that regulate various
aspects of environmental, social and economic sustainability need be added. For example, there is a need for further elaboration of the sustainable
agricultural practices and tolerable use of water resources. Furthermore, as
long as the EU requirements to fulfill the sustainability criteria have global
impacts, the perspective of the involved actors from other regions and countries should be taken into account. Practical possibilities of the involved
actors, their costs for the implementation of the sustainability criteria and
regional differences should also be considered.
More generally, the paper suggests that the list of sustainability criteria,
incorporated in a legal framework, should neither be too long, nor too short. A
long list is not easy to implement. For a short list, as illustrated by the EU, it could
be difficult to guarantee sustainability. Consequently, to the extent possible, the
legislated list of sustainability criteria should be complemented by non-binding
recommendations, explanations and guidelines. Furthermore, before making
the suggested sustainability criteria legally binding, possible conflicts between
different interests and contradictions with the already existing regulations from
neighboring spheres of law should be investigated as a matter of necessity.