Belgium to ban soybean and palm oil biofuels in 2022

London, (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) - Belgium will ban biofuels made from palm oil in 2022 and soybean oil from 2023, the Federal Minister for Environment and Climate, Zakia Khattabi, announced on Tuesday, according to local media.

The move follows similar measures passed by the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Austria with a shared goal of curtailing deforestation.

There are also concerns over whether emissions are saved from biofuels made from the products after indirect land change effects are taken into account.

"To produce the quantity of biodiesel [required] for the Belgian market, palm oil plantations are needed with a total area of more than 100,000 football pitches. We know from studies that at least half of these palm oil plantations are planted on land that has been deforested in the recent past," Khattabi said.

The minister added that the ban is just the first step that will be taken by Belgium since it joined the Amsterdam Declarations Partnership, an agreement aimed at eliminating deforestation in relation to agricultural commodities by 2025. 

"This is a first step to stop the negative environmental impact of the federal biofuels policy. The federal government will also reduce the demand for (bio)fuels by focusing on electric and rail transport," said Khattabi.

While electrification is a central part of climate policy, used cooking oil and other waste products have also become more popular as feedstocks for biodiesel since they are not directly made from crop products and can achieve higher potential greenhouse gas savings.

Such waste-based biofuels are not without controversy themselves though and a series of scandals related to the certification of waste supply chains and the biofuel 'tickets' created have dented confidence in them, particularly in the Netherlands.

Nearly all soybean oil and palm oil used to create biofuels for Europe is imported, either as a raw material or in the finished product, particularly from Argentina, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Argentina and Indonesia have been involved in trade disputes related to biofuel exports to the European Union in recent years, culminating in WTO complaints against the trade bloc.