The farce of environmentally sustainable biodiesel

Italy’s ENI and France’s TotalEnergies (like all European biofuel producers) have lengthy handed off diesel made out of palm oil from deforested land as “environmentally pleasant”, hiding behind its authorized certification. Not for nothing did the European Parliament vote in early October 2022 for an instantaneous ban on palm oil imports for this function.

We’ve got obtained info that unmasks the strategies of those two power giants which collectively function an enormous variety of petrol stations in Europe  – and significantly in Italy, Europe’s third largest producer of biodiesel after Germany and Spain.

Technically, the biodiesel bought by the 2 firms complies with the EU’s certification system. Since 2009, this has required member states to exchange fossil fuels with an rising share of eco-fuels to fight international warming (14% for transport by 2030). It’s exactly this mechanism that has allowed multinationals to proceed to import palm oil with out guaranteeing its environmental sustainability, even thought that assure is theoretically required by different EU laws.

One third of the forests misplaced

On this approach, the EU has ended up stimulating the demand for palm oil to supply biodiesel. Thus have tropical jungles been transformed into oil palm plantations, including to carbon emissions. Due to palm oil, about one third of Indonesia’s forests have been misplaced over the previous twenty years. Nearly 50% of Europe’s palm-oil provide comes from Indonesia.

To treatment this disastrous “rebound impact”, in 2018 the EU determined to take away palm oil from the checklist of renewable power sources. Nevertheless, this ban was solely to take impact in 2023, with a definitive phase-out delayed till 2030. Till then, palm oil can nonetheless be licensed as sustainable so long as it doesn’t come from areas deforested after 2008.

ENI and TotalEnergies introduced that they’d not use the gas as of autumn 2022. For the previous 4 years, nevertheless, they’ve continued to import it (greater than 1 million tonnes for ENI), certifying it based on the so-called “mass steadiness” (1). That is an accounting technique that the EU has formally recognised with the intention to assist companies. Alas, the strategy contradicts the very precept of sustainability. This method is appreciated by producers for its effectivity. However it doesn’t permit the identical degree of traceability as a “segregated” system, the place uncooked supplies are bodily separated all through the manufacturing and transport course of. Because of this many environmental organisations contemplate it to be folly, as we will see.

To unravel the accounting trick, we’ve adopted the whole provide chain again to its supply – from the biorefineries the place ENI and TotalEnergies remodel palm oil into biodiesel – respectively in Gela and Porto Marghera in Italy and La Mede in France – to the plantations the place the palm fruits are harvested to supply the oil. The 2 firms import important volumes from the identical Indonesian refinery Sari Dumai Sejati, which belongs to the Apical Group, one of many world leaders within the sector.

ENI additionally sources its oil from refineries belonging to at the least 4 different producers working in Indonesia. The native refineries course of the crude oil equipped to them from plenty of mills, the place the fruits are pressed and macerated. From the mills, every refinery receives licensed batches of oil, i.e. from verified plantations, alongside batches of extra doubtful origin – i.e., from plantations located on land deforested after 2008.

In the identical tanks

Nevertheless, this separation by …