Bilan carbone des biocarburants : vers une prise en compte des changements indirects d'affectation des sols. : ENG

Cgdd Service De L'Économie De L'Évaluation Et De L'Intégration Du Développement Durable, Ministère De L'Écologie

Description

L’article décrit le bilan carbone des biocarburants, puis explicite les mécanismes et les impacts des changements d’affectation des sols (CAS) liés au développement des cultures énergétiques.
Deux études menées en France, finalisées en 2012, sont ensuite présentées. Elles confirment l’importance des CAS indirects liés au développement des biocarburants en France et dans l’Union européenne et convergent avec les études menées par la Commission européenne.
Pour lutter contre les impacts des CAS indirects, quatre options stratégiques ont été envisagées par la Commission européenne : l’article en fait une analyse comparative qualitative.
Vergez (A), Blanquet (P), Guibert (O De). Paris. http://temis.documentation.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/document.xsp?id=Temis-0078282

Sujets

• Énergie renouvelable

Informations

• Publié par: temis-developpement-durable
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• Licence : En savoir +
  Paternité, pas d'utilisation commerciale, partage des conditions initiales à l'identique
• Langue: English

Extrait

DEPARTMENT
OF THE
COMMISSIONERÉtudes & documents -GENERAL FOR

SUSTAINABLE Studies and documents
DEVELOPMENT
No. 79 Carbon footprint of biofuels:
English version
towards the gradual inclusion of March
indirect land use changes2013

Economy, evaluation and integration of sustainable development service
www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr

ECONOMICS & EVALUATION









 “Etudes et Documents” Collection of the Economy, Evaluation and Integration of Sustainable 
Development Service (SEEIDD)  
in the Department of the Commissioner­general for Sustainable Development (CGDD) 


Title: Carbon footprint of biofuels: toward the gradual inclusion of indirect
land use changes

Publication director: Xavier Bonnet
Author: Antonin Vergez (CGDD) ; Pascal Blanquet et Olivier de Guibert
(DGEC*)
Date of publication: March 2013




* Direction générale de l’énergie et du climat (General directorate for energy and climate)

Acknowledgements 
 

This document commits its authors and not the institutions to which they belong.
The purpose of this publication is to stimulate deb  ate and call for comments and criticism. Studies & documents | No. 79 | March 2013





CONTENTS




Summary .................................................................................................................................................................. 2
1. Carbon footprint of biofuels vs. fossil fuels: two sustainability thresholds in Directive 2009/28/EC................ 3
2. ILUC: definition, mechanisms and estimation................................................................................................... 5
2.1. Definition.....................................................................................................................................................................5
2.2. Agro-economic mechanisms of ILUC..........................................................................................................................6
2.3. How are ILUC assessed?..............................................................................................................................................7
2.4. Mention of ILUC in European Directives.....................................................................................................................8
3. Two French studies on the consumption of biofuels in Europe and on its possible impact in terms of ILUC..... 8
3.1. Study 1: "Retrospective analysis of interactions between the development of biofuels in France with French
and international market changes (agricultural products, processed products and by-products) and land-use changes”8
3.2. Study 2: "Critical review of studies assessing the impact of LUC on the environmental balance of biofuels”......9
4. The European Commission has studied 4 options to tackle the impacts of ILUC ............................................... 9
5. Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................... 11
6. Bibliography ................................................................................................................................................... 12


Department of the Commissioner general for sustainable development – Economy, evaluation and integration of sustainable development service | 1Studies & documents | No. 79 | March 2013








Summary


A renewable energy target of 10% has been set for the transport sector on a European level. Life Cycle Assessments (LCA)
generally show that biofuels reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to fossil fuels through the replacement of
fossil fuels with "short-cycle" carbon. This was shown in the study carried out for ADEME in 2009. However, these
conventional LCA do not take into account the consequences of the development of biofuels on land use and more
specifically on land-use changes (LUC). These land-use changes may however be the source of significant GHG emissions.
An important scientific and political debate has been ongoing since 2009 on the subject of GHG emissions from land-use
changes induced by the production of biofuels.
This article initially aims to describe the carbon footprint of biofuels, and then explain the mechanisms and potential
impacts of LUC associated with the development of energy crops.
There is generally a distinction made between two types of LUC: direct (DLUC) and indirect (ILUC). Two studies on LUC
recently published in France (2012) are presented. They attempt to identify determining factors and assess the
importance of direct and indirect LUC associated with the development of biofuels in France and in the European Union,
resulting from the targets set by European Directive 2009/28/EC of 29 April 2009 on renewable energies. The two studies
confirm the importance of ILUC and thus converge with the findings of the studies conducted by the European Commission
(EC).
To tackle the impacts of ILUC, several strategic options have been considered by the EC: the article draws up a qualitative
comparison, before concluding that from an environmental point of view, despite the methodological difficulties in
quantifying ILUC, there is a need to take their impacts into account in biofuel development policies.
In October 2012, the EC proposed to report ILUC values, limit the contribution of first generation biofuels to achieve the
renewable energy incorporation targets in transport, and provide an incentive to develop second generation biofuels
produced from non-food raw materials, such as waste or straw, whose overall emissions are substantially lower than
those of fossil fuels, and which do not directly interfere with global food production.

2 | Department of the Commissioner general for sustainable development – Economy, evaluation and integration of sustainable development serviceStudies & documents | No. 79 | March 2013


1. Carbon footprint of biofuels vs. fossil fuels: two sustainability thresholds in
Directive 2009/28/EC
By convention, in the official emission inventories submitted by countries every year to the community or international bodies,
the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the consumption of biofuels in the transport sector are considered to be zero, as
the carbon dioxide released during the combustion of biofuels is removed from the atmosphere through photosynthesis during
the biomass production phase. Compared with fossil fuels, the use of biofuels may therefore result in lower emissions (which
may correspond to a "carbon credit").

Figure 1: Comparison of fossil fuels and biofuels: the "carbon credit" of biofuels


GHG
emissions Raw material
(gCO2eq/MJ) production


Processing


Combustion of Carbon
the fuel credit






Fossil fuel Biofuel

source: De Cara et al, 2012

In the figure above, it can be noted that the production (green lines) and processing (red lines) of biofuels produce more
emissions than those of fossil fuels. Indeed, the agricultural activity of raw material production produces emissions, and the
industrial stage of their processing produces more emissions than converting oil into fuel. The fuel consumption stage is
essentially identical. In contrast, the production of biofuels benefits from an additional "carbon credit", which comes from
atmospheric CO2 sequestration through photosynthesis during production of the raw plant material. (This carbon credit
corresponds to the amount of emissions from combustion of the fuel. The difference can be seen as a small rectangle shown in
1bright yellow in Figure 4 on page 7: "combustion minus carbon credit". )
Thus, the carbon footprint of biofuels, assessed over their life cycle, i.e. from the production or extraction of raw materials to
their combustion, is not zero and must therefore be compared with that of fossil fuels. The aim of introducing biofuels into the
transport sector is in fact not to obtain a zero carbon footprint, but to reduce transport GHG emissions (relative to fossil fuels)
for the same amount of energy produced (expressed in megajoules, MJ), taking into account the respective life cycles of the
biofuel and fossil fuel.
This GHG emission saving must be sufficiently high for biofuels to be qualified as "sustainable". Sustainability thresholds are
specified in Article 17 of Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of renewable energy: "The greenhouse gas emission saving
from the use of biofuels and bioliquids taken into account […] shall be at least 35%. With effect from 1 January 2017, the
greenhouse gas emission saving from the use of biofuels and bioliquids taken into account [...] shall be at least 50%".