Bioenergy & land use
Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC)
Land conversion that happens elsewhere when cropland is diverted to biofuel production — potentially releasing carbon that cancels out biofuel climate benefits.
Definition
Indirect land use change is the conversion of land — often carbon-rich forest, wetland, or peatland — to agriculture elsewhere in the world when existing cropland or pasture is diverted to produce biofuel feedstocks, because food and feed demand must still be met. Because ILUC cannot be directly measured, it is estimated by models; under the EU Renewable Energy Directive, feedstocks with significant expansion into high-carbon-stock land are classed high ILUC-risk and their contribution to renewable targets is capped and phased out by 2030.
References
Overview
What it means
ILUC is the concept that broke the first generation of biofuel policy: a fuel can look carbon-neutral at the tailpipe while driving deforestation a continent away.
The EU's response — Delegated Regulation 2019/807 defining high ILUC-risk feedstocks by observed expansion into high-carbon land (initially capturing palm oil, extended in 2026 toward soy) — is the most consequential attempt to regulate an unmeasurable effect, and remains contested by producer countries.
How it is used
The term anchors EU biofuel sustainability rules, feedstock certification (low ILUC-risk), and lifecycle greenhouse-gas accounting for biofuels.
Why it matters
It is the canonical example of leakage in environmental policy — solving a problem in one place by moving it elsewhere.
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