(Bio)Fueling Injustice? - Europafrica

the Commission made clear that Member States may not use the inclusion of social
sustainability issues in a voluntary scheme as grounds for a refusal to take into
account biofuels/bioliquids that are not covered by the scheme. 411
The EU relies, secondly, on a system of monitoring to prevent negative social impact
of its biofuel policy. According to the RED, the Commission must, every two years,
report to the European Parliament and the Council on a number of consequences of
the EU biofuel policy, including:
1) the impact on social sustainability in the Community and in third countries of
increased demand for biofuel;
2) the impact of Community biofuel policy on the availability of foodstuffs at
affordable prices, in particular for people living in developing countries;
3) wider development issues; and
4) the respect of land-use rights. 412
The Commission must also report both for third countries and Member States that are
a significant source of raw material for biofuel consumed within the Community, about
whether the country has ratified and implemented the core International Labour
Organisations conventions. The first such report should be released at the end of
2012. The RED includes the possibility that corrective action is taken, “in particular if
evidence shows that biofuel production has a significant impact on food prices”. 413
This monitoring exercise is absolutely crucial, as it is the central argument of
the EU to defend that it controls the negative social impacts of its biofuel
policy. 414 The European Commission has affirmed:
“The continued monitoring and reporting of impacts of the
biofuel policy will ensure that unsustainable practices will be
detected and corrective action will be taken if appropriate. This
relates to food prices as well as to environmental and broader
economic impacts.” 415
The report published in 2012 will therefore be fundamental for the European
Commission to assess properly and act upon the social impact of biofuels, and its
quality will give a good indication on the efforts the EU is ready to make in this regard.
To be useful, the report will need to be strictly impartial and rigorous. An initial study
recently published by the Commission (January 2012) to provide baseline data and
methodology regarding the impacts of biofuels as of 2008 (before the RED applied)
can give a sense of the future content of the coming bi-annual report. This study is
purportedly significant as it aims at providing the Commission with a methodology for
its monitoring under the RED and it will bring “important inputs in the Commission’s biannual
renewable energy progress reports.” 416 However, there are key issues
present in the baseline study will need to be addressed in the bi-annual report to
make it credible. The baseline study sometimes avoids reviewing specific countries,
without any apparent reason. 417 It only does a very superficial analysis of the social
impacts of the EU biofuel policy, focusing on job creation, gender issues, the
involvement of small farmers in producing biofuel feedstocks, and compliance with
International Labour Organisation Conventions. It thus takes a very narrow
understanding of the obligation to report on “wider development issues” present in the
RED. Data about social impacts, in particular in Africa, is often lacking, and is
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