Crops that fail to comply with the new standards, known as Red II, will not be permitted to be traded for biofuel production, which could lower their value. The directive is a single policy covering both the production and promotion of energy from renewable sources within the EU.
However, while policymakers promote biofuel production, which offers governments cleaner energy from secure, renewable sources, there are concerns about over-production. Production has increased significantly in the past 10 years and further growth is expected with the proportion of biofuel in petrol inreasing in Europe.
Red II includes rules designed to protect land and prevent the loss of high-ecological status areas via on-farm checks and certification. It is this area of Red II’s remit that will change from 1 July.
In addition, from 1 July 2021, the grain passport will refer to Red II as the “recast Red”. From this date, growers will need to ensure that their grain passport clearly references recast Red when confirming compliance with a signed and dated declaration.
