A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

Climate policy integration and governing indirect land-use changes-Actors in the EU's biofuel policy-formulation




AuthorsHumalisto NH

PublisherELSEVIER SCI LTD

Publication year2015

JournalLand Use Policy

Journal name in sourceLAND USE POLICY

Journal acronymLAND USE POLICY

Volume45

First page 150

Last page158

Number of pages9

ISSN0264-8377

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2015.01.024


Abstract

Indirect land-use changes (iLUC) have challenged the rationale of decarbonising the transport of the European Union (EU) through biofuels. As a contribution to existing literature, I map the groups of actors connected with the EU's biofuel development through a cluster analysis and, further, examine their opinions about how iLUC should be governed. My analysis does not only reveal the heterogeneous interpretations of iLUC and its governance. It also illustrates how the iLUC directive proposal of the European Commission has two challenges related to making successful climate policy integration in a globally operating, multi-scalar assemblage of actors. Firstly, the scientific basis of policy-formulation was called into question when the actors explicated the limitations of the iLUC models by utilising their distinctive situated knowledge of iLUC. Secondly, the instruments that were proposed in the directive do not recognise how iLUC impacts could dampen through developing land-use practices, which was not a majority view within the actors of the European biofuel assemblage. I end this article by suggesting that acknowledging actors' capacity to influence the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions originating from land-use changes might mitigate the tensions between the EU's climate policy targets and those affected by such policies. (c) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.




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