Palm oil biodiesel. Antitrust condemns ENI
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Palm oil 'biodiesel' is unsustainable. And the Antitrust (Antitrust Authority for Competition and the Market, AGCM), with provision 15.1.20, sentenced ENI SPA to a 5 million euro fine. For misleading consumers by falsely presenting fuel as green 'ENIdiesel +'.
Palm oil and 'biodiesel' in Italy
Palm oil it is the cheapest and thus the most widespread fat on a planetary level. However, the phenomenal growth of its global demand has upset the populations and ecosystems of the various countries where it is produced. Starting from Indonesia and Malaysia, its first producers, where in the last two decades there has been the extraordinary progress of land robberies (or land grabbing) and deforestation of primary forest to make room for oil palm monocultures. (1)
Italy has always been one of the first importers of this tropical grease, highly appreciated for its low cost and versatility of use. In the food supply chain, above all, until - as a result of the public awareness campaign and the petition launched by the writer (Dongo) - consumers have begun to boycott almost all the foods that contain it.
Imports however, they continued, with a prevalent destiny towards the production of 'biofuels' (54% of imports in 2018). Italy is thus today the second largest producer in the EU of 'biodiesel' from palm oil, which is transformed in the ENI refineries of Porto Marghera, Venice, and Gela.
Palm oil 'biodiesel' e greenwashing, the complaint of Legambiente
Legambiente - together with the Citizen Defense Movement (MDC) e Transport & Environment (T&E) - denounced the misleading advertising of diesel 'ENIdiesel +'. (2) The data on a hypothetical reduction of gaseous emissions ('up to 40%') and CO2 ('5% on average') and consumption ('up to 4%') are of dubious foundation, as well as unclear. And the 'environmental sustainability,'of palm' biodiesel 'is false.
The deceptiveness of the messages advertising used by ENI derives primarily from the confusion between the advertised product 'EniDiesel +'and its biodiesel component - HVO, Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil, called by Eni 'Green Diesel'- which represents 15%. The raw materials used in the hydrogenation process (Ecofining, technology patented by ENI and Honeywell) of the 'Green Diesel', moreover, are mainly made up of palm oil, whose impact on soils is problematic. (3). According to ENI itself,
'palm oil represented in 2017 and 2018 the main raw material used for the production of its HVO, while increasing quantities of other 'waste' raw materials (used vegetable oils, fatty acids and oleins) were gradually used '. (4)
Certified 'biofuel' = sustainable?
The EU Court of Auditors, in its own report 18/2016 on the European Union's system for the certification of sustainable biofuels, clarified that:
- identification voluntary certification schemes by the Commission is limited to verifying the mandatory requirements set out in the Renewable Energy Directive but does not guarantee the sustainability of certified biofuels, and
- the EU system certification of the sustainability of biofuels is not fully reliable, as the assessment does not consider the impact on the environment of land use changes (ILUC, Indirect Land Use Change).
A 'Green Diesel'?
In advertisements, between 2016 and 2019, ENI used the name 'Green Diesel', qualifications'green component' and 'renewable component'and other boast of' environmental inspiration '. The same term 'green'evokes in the average consumer the idea of an absolute benefit of care (or at least of the absence of damage) for the environment. And
'being in itself meaningless more precise and commonly understandable relating precisely to the environmental impact of a given product or production process, it can therefore be used as a fundamental element of concrete advantages relating to the performance of an advertised product only if the latter actually brings a demonstrable environmental advantage of an absolute and not relative '. (4)
These messages concern a diesel fuel for automotive, that is a fuel which by its nature is a highly polluting product and which, obviously, cannot be considered "green" nor can it be used to take care of the environment through its use. In this case, the use of generic environmental products therefore appears to create a lot of confusion on the characteristics and effects of using a product whose use certainly has a negative environmental impact, thus deceiving consumers. ' (5)
Palm oil 'renewable'? Buycott!
The term 'renewable', used by ENI to attribute a value green to its own palm oil biodiesel, is in turn suggestive of a unique and immediate value in terms of favorable environmental impact. However, it is not compatible with a supply chain - that of palm oil - that it has a very negative impact on local communities (victims of systematic land robbery) and on ecosystems devastated by the monoculture in question. (6)
Agriculture itself it cannot be considered a renewable source, like wind, sun, wave motion, geothermal energy. Because of its significant and direct impact on resources that are scarce by definition, such as soil and water.
Palm oil it is an unsustainable production, the global demand for which must be stopped. We renew the invitation to renounce the purchase of any product - food, cosmetics, detergents, biofuels - that contains it, and to sign the our petition #Buycott!
Dario Dongo and Giulia Caddeo
Note
(1) Legambiente. Maxi fine for ENI, has deceived consumers on the green diesel, press release 15.1.20.
(2) Consumer Code, Articles 21 and 22.
(3) Antitrust, ENI provision 15.1.20, point 28 (page 9). Indirect land use change, or ILUC (Indirect Land Use Change) is the impact of the demand for raw materials for biofuels on global agriculture. This could lead to the expansion of available land and deforestation elsewhere, resulting in an increase in CO2 emissions. ILUC is not measurable, as it takes place through complex economic interactions and manifests itself only in small variations in the great dynamics of the global agricultural system. It can only be analyzed through detailed models. In 2015 and 2016, the European Commission entered into a contract with Ecofys, the company Navigant and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), to evaluate ILUC with the GLOBIOM model. Carlo Hamelinck. (2017). Climate Change, Indirect Land Use Change from Biofuels Explained. Biofuels, Policy regulation, Carbon emissions.
(4) AGCM, points 29 and 45 of the provision (pages 9 and 15).
(5) Idem cs, paragraph 81 (page 27).
(6) Idem cs, paragraph 90 (p. 30).
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
