The EU Biofuel Policy and Palm Oil: Cutting subsidies or cutting rainforest?

The report finds that EU biofuel policies have significantly increased palm oil consumption, with the biofuels sector accounting for 80% of the total increase in EU palm oil use between 2006 and 2012. It argues that the low cost and high yield of palm oil make it a 'marginal vegetable oil' that replaces domestic feedstocks like rapeseed. The authors warn that without reducing subsidies for food-based biofuels, the EU will likely see a 40% increase in palm oil consumption by 2020, potentially exacerbating deforestation and carbon emissions in tropical forests and peatlands.

• Between 2006 and 2012, the EU-27 increased its total palm oil use by 40%, rising from 4.5 to 6.4 million tonnes. The biofuels industry was the primary driver, increasing its palm oil consumption by 365%, which represented 80% of the total increase in European palm oil consumption during this period.
• Quantitative analysis indicates a direct relationship between biodiesel production and palm oil use: for every additional tonne of biodiesel produced in the EU between 2006 and 2012, palm oil consumption in the biodiesel sector increased by approximately 110 kilograms.
• Palm oil serves as a 'marginal vegetable oil' in Europe, substituting for other fats when they are unavailable or expensive. This is driven by its high productivity—producing 5 to 10 times more oil per hectare than other vegetable crops—and its status as the cheapest vegetable oil on the world market.
• The Netherlands is the EU's largest importer and processor of palm oil, largely due to the port of Rotterdam. The opening of a Neste Oil biodiesel plant in Rotterdam in 2011, which consumed 0.4 million tonnes of palm oil in 2012, contributed to a doubling of the country's domestic palm oil disappearance since 2006.
• Under a business-as-usual scenario, the EU biodiesel sector is projected to consume 2.6 to 2.7 million tonnes of palm oil by 2020, a 40% increase from 2012 levels. Additionally, imports of biodiesel, a significant portion of which may be palm-oil based, are expected to rise.
• The report argues that current EU sustainability criteria only address direct land-use change and fail to prevent indirect land-use change (ILUC), where certified palm oil diverts unsustainable palm oil into other markets. The authors suggest the only way to stop this trend is to limit the contribution of food-based biofuels to 5% of the 2020 renewable energy target.

APA

Gerasimchuk, I., & Koh, P. Y. (2013). The EU Biofuel Policy and Palm Oil: Cutting subsidies or cutting rainforest? International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/gsi/sites/default/files/bf_eupalmoil.pdf

Chicago

Gerasimchuk, Ivetta, and Peng Yam Koh. The EU Biofuel Policy and Palm Oil: Cutting subsidies or cutting rainforest? International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2013. https://www.iisd.org/gsi/sites/default/files/bf_eupalmoil.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Gerasimchuk |first1=Ivetta |last2=Koh |first2=Peng Yam |title=The EU Biofuel Policy and Palm Oil: Cutting subsidies or cutting rainforest? |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=September 2013 |url=https://www.iisd.org/gsi/sites/default/files/bf_eupalmoil.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{gerasimchuk2013biofuel, author = {Gerasimchuk, Ivetta and Koh, Peng Yam}, title = {{The EU Biofuel Policy and Palm Oil: Cutting subsidies or cutting rainforest?}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2013}, month = sep, url = {https://www.iisd.org/gsi/sites/default/files/bf_eupalmoil.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }