The European Commission has launched a public consultation on a draft amendment proposing the gradual exclusion of biofuels derived from palm oil and soyabean oil by 2030, Biofuels International wrote.
Under the proposed amendment to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/807, companies subject to European Union (EU) renewable energy quotas would no longer be permitted to count biofuels produced from these feedstocks towards their obligations after that date, the 9 February report said.
The draft regulation outlined a phased reduction in the eligibility of palm- and soya-based biofuels from 2025 onwards, with intermediate thresholds set at 71.4% in 2025, 42.8% in 2027 and 14.3% in 2029, measured as a share of gross final energy consumption.
From 2030, rapeseed oil would become the only cultivated biomass oil source eligible for quota compliance.
Several member states - including France, the Netherlands and Germany - had already moved ahead of the timeline by excluding palm oil-based biofuels from their national schemes since 2023, Biofuels International wrote.
The proposed exclusion of soyabean oil was based on findings published by the EC on 20 January in its report to the European Parliament and Council on the global expansion of food and feed crop production (COM(2026) 36 final).
Prepared by consultancy Guidehouse, the report assessed changes in global cultivation areas and their impact on high-carbon stock land, including virgin forest regions.
The EC had concluded that palm oil and soyabeans were raw materials associated with a high risk of indirect land-use change (iLUC). For this reason, soyabean meal – in addition to soyabean oil – was considered economically linked to cultivation expansion and environmental risk, the report said.
The classification of soyabeans as high-iLUC feedstock was dismissed by Germany’s Union for the Promotion of Plants and Protein (UFOP).
According to UFOP, an across-the-board classification would affect soyabean farming in general, including production in the USA or in Europe, and the move
would undermine the increasingly strict requirements for obtaining sustainability certifications, in particular the obligation to provide dated proof of land use.
The implications of classifying soyabeans – rather than soybean oil, as is the case with palm oil – as a high-risk feedstock had not been adequately considered, UFOP said.
According to UFOP, the expansion of soyabean farming is primarily driven by soyabean and an across-the-board classification would eliminate a major sales outlet in the biofuel sector, including for German and European soyabean producers.
The EC has invited stakeholders to review the proposal and participate in its consultation process.
