Air Improvement Resource and University of Illinois new study

In Michigan, Air Improvement Resource, (S&T) squared and the University of Illinois Chicago new study “Land Use Change Greenhouse Gas emissions of European Biofuel Policies Utilizing the Global Trade” Analysis Project (GTAP) evaluates land use changes for several biofuels pathways and policies.

It concludes that biodiesel could account for as little as 2.33gCO2eq/MJ, compared to current 55gCO2eq/MJ allocated in a Commission proposal amending biofuels policy. This represents a 95% difference mainly due to improved understanding as regards land use, crop yields and forest use in the EU, Canada and the US (where the forest continuously increases in the last decades).

Suggestions for further improvements are also provided like regionalization of the analysis and crop specificity of yield. The divergence of results due to a slight change in assumptions, once again, opens the floor to question the validity of ILUC science for policy making.