Soy and palm oil will soon be banned from being used in biofuels. Federal Environment and Climate Minister Zakia Khattabi is tightening the sustainability criteria for biofuels: these based on soy and palm oil will be banned in the transport sector from mid-2022.
On the basis of the Product Standards Act, palm oil-based biofuels will no longer be authorised on the Belgian market (as in Denmark, France and the Netherlands) in the transport sector from mid-2022.
From 2023, soy will be banned as a raw material for biofuels for transport. Biodiesel producers will have to supply themselves with other raw materials and evolve into biofuels from other generations.
Zakia Khattabi, Minister.
The use of the most harmful biofuel, from palm oil, increased tenfold on the Belgian market to 231 million litres between 2019 and 2020.
“These fuels have little to no advantage over conventional fossil fuels from a climate point of view, but lead to deforestation, loss of biodiversity and even human rights violations.”
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“In order to produce this biodiesel for the Belgian market alone, palm oil plantations with a total area of more than 100,000 football fields are needed. We know from studies that at least half of these palm oil plantations have been planted on land that has been deforested in a recent past.” Minister Zakia Khattabi has declared.”
“It is the first measure since we joined the Amsterdam Declaration Partnership, an agreement against the introduction of deforestation. This is a first step to stop the negative environmental impacts of the federal biofuels policy.”
“The federal government will also reduce the demand for (bio)fuels by focusing on electric transport and transport by train,” concludes Minister Khattabi.
Soja en palmolie binnenkort niet meer in biobrandstoffen, April 13, 2021
