So-called agrofuels or biodiesel are often cited as climate-neutral or used to reduce CO2 emissions. Also OMV claims to do so, as it has been announced that 200 million euros will be invested in "biofuels". The idea: The plants used for producing fuel are harvested, processed into fuel, burned in car tanks and the resulting CO2 emissions are reabsorbed by the plants.
However, this is too short-sighted, because it does not take into account how much original land is cleared and destroyed in order to plant so-called energy crops - mostly rapeseed, soy or palm oil. These areas, especially swamp land and rainforests, have stored many times more carbon than the newly planted energy crops can store. Furthermore, the cultivation of energy crops causes indirect land use change. In concrete terms, this means that even if a biodiesel producer does not directly clear rainforest for palm oil plantation, the increased demand leads to the development of new palm oil plantations. As a result, biodiesel is on average 1.8 times more harmful to the climate than fossil diesel.
Agrofuels thus make no contribution to climate protection, with the exception of agrofuels in regional cycles and the recycling of used oils. For the remaining agrofuels, ILUC factors - i.e. indirect land use change - must be included: Only those agrofuels that cause significantly less CO2 emissions overall (i.e., including effects from indirect land use change) than fossil fuels should be approved and promoted. This would mean that biodiesel from palm oil, soy and rapeseed would no longer be able to be sold as climate friendly.
How OMV will use its capacity to process bio-oils in the future remains unclear. In official documents recycling of used oils is mentioned only in passing, suggesting that the main use will remain energy crops with all their concerns.
Want to learn more about the use of biofuels and their impact on the environment? Read here Greenpeace's position paper on agrofuels.