On 8th to 10th June AKI as partner of BIKE project participated in the European Biomass Conference and Exhibition (EUBCE) 2023. This being the first physical conference since Covid-ERA. The conference drew many participants from different parts of the world who showcased their continuous research, innovation, and development championing for EU bioeconomy transformative agenda. Different projects, scholars, companies among others showcased their continued research. The BIKE team pitched their camp for three days which was marked with a parallel side event on the last day for three hours presenting the projects results over the three years. The take home message of sustainable Biofuels under Low Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) risk was to promote additionality measures for the agricultural sector. However, quantification of the additional yield must be certified by the farmers to claim their premiums from biofuels to ensure such biofuel feedstocks do not exacerbate the food and feed production crisis. With marginal, degraded and unused lands being the target for Low-risk ILUC biofuel feedstock, BIKE project recommends there is need to differentiate and distinguish the three land uses and mapping establishing their real data.
Additionally, as Biofuels play crucial role in Carbon Capture, the project recommends to the Commission on revision of the proposed defaults in calculation of emission savings via improved agricultural management (esca) and development of methodology that is simple and cheaper for farmers to calculate their esca easily. From a policy perspective, the project agrees that there is no shortage of policies, however the existing policies are disaggregated and make the process of producing sustainable biofuels too complex. Thus, the harmonisation of policies with the view of promoting sustainable biofuel feedstocks production is needed thus reducing indirect land use change.
