Import Regulations and Certification as a Means to Enforce Sustainable Agriculture Abroad

Bioenergy, used for the mitigation of climate change, has in recent years increased the pressure on land and thereby on agriculture, natural and near natural habitats. The European Union Renewable Energy Directive 2009/28/EU establishes for the first time environmental limitations that not only impact the drafting of climate change policy but also are specifically aimed at regulating its impact. Biofuels and bioliquids can only be supported by the States if they comply with certain limitations on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and requirements on the protection of biodiversity. Although several issues are not sufficiently addressed, such as socio-economic issues or indirect land-use changes, the mechanism can nonetheless serve as a blueprint for regulation in other sectors. This is particularly true for the recognition mechanism, which benchmarks voluntary certification standards against the sustainability criteria. Valuable experiences may be drawn both for the design of certification systems and for the requirements on meta-standards.