”indirect Land Use Change” (iLUC) – A critical inventory for objective political decision-making

UFOP released expert report

Berlin, 4 March 2014. “Proposal rejected - The EU Commission has failed in the first round with its biofuel legislation on ”indirect Land Use Change”. With this statement Prof. Dr. Uwe Lahl, Technical University of Darmstadt, introduces in his article.

Advice is offered for the second round of legislation on the complex of ”Land Use Change” (LUC). Prof. Lahl explains how the European Commission has derived factors for EU legislation for indirect land use change (iLUC) using econometric model calculations. These factors do not possess adequate legal certainty and would make no contribution to solving the problem of world-wide land use change if they were to be introduced. Current legislation has not offered an adequate approach for providing a solution to the problem of land use change. The author therefore recommends that the Council and the European Parliament should task the Commission once again with developing a proposal for constructive regulations. This article points out the aspects which must be fulfilled by any new regulatory proposals. In this respect Prof. Lahl references to the fundamental principle of Good Governance and it will be shown how, by means of regionally orientated regulations, the environmental policy pledges on ”Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions” (NAMAs) and ”Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation” (REDD+) could be supported in the relevant countries.

The report is available for download here.