Trudeau’s flawed biofuels plan repeats U.S. mistakes, undermines climate goals

Mighty Earth warns that Canada's proposed Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) fails to include robust accounting for indirect land-use change (ILUC), which could lead to ecosystem destruction and increased greenhouse gas emissions, mirroring failures of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The author urges the Canadian government to adopt ILUC values, potentially using California's Low-Carbon Fuel Standard as a placeholder, to ensure the policy promotes truly sustainable biofuels rather than food-based fuels that drive cropland expansion.

• The proposed Canadian Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) omits accounting for indirect land-use change (ILUC), which is considered by scientific consensus to be a key measurement of the true carbon impact of biofuels.
• The United States' Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), adopted in 2007, is described as an ineffective climate mitigation program that may actually contribute to increased greenhouse gas pollution because it promoted food-based biofuels and failed to protect against cropland expansion.
• In the European Union, the failure to implement ILUC accounting in 2009 allowed the food-based biofuel industry to become powerful enough to block the adoption of such accounting when it was proposed three years later.
• Mighty Earth recommends that Environment and Climate Change Canada include the California Low-Carbon Fuel Standard’s ILUC values as a placeholder in the draft regulation to signal a requirement for sustainable biofuels.

APA

Jones, S. (2018). Trudeau’s flawed biofuels plan repeats U.S. mistakes, undermines climate goals. Mighty Earth. https://mightyearth.org/article/trudeaus-flawed-biofuels-plan-repeats-u-s-mistakes-undermines-climate-goals/

Chicago

Jones, Sydney. Trudeau’s flawed biofuels plan repeats U.S. mistakes, undermines climate goals. Mighty Earth, 2018. https://mightyearth.org/article/trudeaus-flawed-biofuels-plan-repeats-u-s-mistakes-undermines-climate-goals/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Jones |first1=Sydney |title=Trudeau’s flawed biofuels plan repeats U.S. mistakes, undermines climate goals |publisher=Mighty Earth |date=14 May 2018 |url=https://mightyearth.org/article/trudeaus-flawed-biofuels-plan-repeats-u-s-mistakes-undermines-climate-goals/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{jones2018trudeaus, author = {Jones, Sydney}, title = {{Trudeau’s flawed biofuels plan repeats U.S. mistakes, undermines climate goals}}, publisher = {Mighty Earth}, year = {2018}, month = may, url = {https://mightyearth.org/article/trudeaus-flawed-biofuels-plan-repeats-u-s-mistakes-undermines-climate-goals/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }