The European Commission?s follow-up work on the Renewables Directive (RED) ? and particularly the controversial issue of Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) ? is making slow progress. On ILUC, discussions are underway between several Commission departments, including energy, environment, trade, agriculture and economic and financial affairs. They aim to hold an internal consultation shortly to find a compromise on the methodolody for calculating emissions from ILUC. Meanwhile, the Commission hopes to launch a public consultation on ILUC policy options by the end of the year ? but with internal discussions taking so long, this deadline may prove to be overly ambitious. It seems that there is agreement to seek views on the positive effects of ILUC in the consultation document, including byproducts. The drafting of a set of practical guidelines to operators on the RED sustainability criteria has also been delayed.

EU leaders met in Brussels on 30 and 31 October to agree on a negotiating mandate for the UN Copenhagen climate summit in December. After difficult negotiations, they reached a compromise on the divisive issue of financing emissions reductions in developing countries. Some of the EU?s newer and poorer members had been concerned that finance from the EU be divided in a way that would not endanger their economic recovery, and the Summit managed to agree on a burden-sharing arrangement but left details of individual countries' contributions to be decided at a later stage. Overall, the EU believes that developing countries will need EUROS 100 billion a year in assistance by 2020 to tackle climate change, 22-50 billion of which should come from governments. After the summit, Commission President Barroso announced that the EU had agreed to ?pay its fair share of this?, and reached a ?clear, ambitious, and unified EU message on climate finance? that could now be taken ?to Washington, New Delhi, Beijing and elsewhere.? He added that the EU?s offer was ?not a blank check? and called on other countries to deliver. Swedish Prime Minister and current EU President Fredrik Reinfeldt triumphantly announced the agreement to the press, saying that ?The EU now has a strong position in view of Copenhagen.?

The European Commission?s follow-up work on the Renewables Directive (RED) ? and particularly the controversial issue of Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) ? is making slow progress. On ILUC, discussions are underway between several Commission departments, including energy, environment, trade, agriculture and economic and financial affairs. They aim to hold an internal consultation shortly to find a compromise on the methodolody for calculating emissions from ILUC. Meanwhile, the Commission hopes to launch a public consultation on ILUC policy options by the end of the year ? but with internal discussions taking so long, this deadline may prove to be overly ambitious. It seems that there is agreement to seek views on the positive effects of ILUC in the consultation document, including byproducts. The drafting of a set of practical guidelines to operators on the RED sustainability criteria has also been delayed.

Germany’s second parliamentary chamber – the Bundestag - finally sealed a piece of legislation on the promotion of biofuels on 18 June, after the first chamber – the Bundesrat - had rejected it. The former was able to maintain a lowering of the obligatory biofuels quota from 6.25% to 5.25%, raising it to 6.25% in 2010 only and freezing the level until 2014. However, the latter won a slower phasing out of the current biofuel tax breaks. Taxes will now rise by 3 euro cent instead of 6 to 18 euro cent per litre. The German biofuel industry criticised the outcome, arguing that this was not enough to save national producers from a current wave of bankruptcies. To view the official parliament statement (in German), click here. Following the official entry into force of the EU’s biofuel legislation in early June, the German government issued a sustainability ordinance in early July, which has already been given a green light by the parliament. The ordinance lays down the requirements for the sustainable production of liquid biomass – including palm oil – used to generate power. To view the ordinance text as agreed (in German), click here.

On 7 July, EU Member States agreed to impose definitive anti-dumping and countervailing measures against US biodiesel imports as of 12 July. These will be upheld for the next five years. Provisional measures had already been put in place in March to offset further harm to European producers ahead of the final decision. The decision was welcomed by the association of European biodiesel producers (EBB), which launched the complaint. EBB Secretary General Raffaello Garofalo said it was a positive conclusion “for the defence of our endangered industry”. To view the EU document on the Member States’ decision, click here. To view the EBB press release, click here.

On 8 July, G8 leaders meeting in Italy recognised the need to keep global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and agreed on a global long-term goal of reducing global emissions by at least 50% by 2050 and, as part of this, on an 80% or more reduction goal for developed countries by 2050. This high-political level commitment was received by commentators as a positive step in the run-up to the international Copenhagen climate talks in December this year. However, leaders are yet to agree on the issue of financing of climate change mitigation measures in developing countries. They also failed to seal an agreement on crucial mid-term CO2 reduction targets. The G8 summit was therefore rated a “missed opportunity” to break the deadlock in international climate talks by environmental NGO Greenpeace. To view the G8 chair summary, click here.