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3 J. Sustainable Dev. L. & Pol'y 4 (2014)

handle is hein.journals/jsusdvlp3 and id is 1 raw text is: 

4   AFE BABALOLA UNIVERSITY: JOURNAL OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT LAW AND POLICY (2014) 3:1


      LEGAL ANALYSIS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
        SUSTAINABILITY CRITERIA FOR BIOFUELS

                        Evgenia  Pavlovskaia*

ABSTRACT

This paper provides  a legal analysis and review of the European Union (EU)
sustainability criteria for biofuels, presented in Directive 2009/28/EC. The
paper  discusses the EU  sustainability criteria as a tool that could be effi-
ciently utilized to operationalize and implement the concepts of sustainable
development   and sustainability in an industrial setting.
    The  results of the analysis highlight that to safeguard the sustainable
quality of biofuels and  their production, the list of the EU  sustainability
criteria should be elaborated  further. Other criteria that regulate various
aspects of environmental,  social and economic   sustainability need be add-
ed. For example,  there is a need for further elaboration of the sustainable
agricultural practices and tolerable use of water resources. Furthermore, as
long as the EU  requirements  to fulfill the sustainability criteria have global
impacts, the perspective of the involved actors from other regions and coun-
tries should be taken  into account.  Practical possibilities of the involved
actors, their costs for the implementation of the sustainability criteria and
regional differences should also be considered.
    More  generally, the paper suggests that the list of sustainability criteria,
incorporated in a legal framework, should neither be too long, nor too short. A
long list is not easy to implement. For a short list, as illustrated by the EU, it could
be difficult to guarantee sustainability. Consequently, to the extent possible, the
legislated list of sustainability criteria should be complemented by non-binding
recommendations,   explanations and  guidelines. Furthermore, before making
the suggested sustainability criteria legally binding, possible conflicts between
different interests and contradictions with the already existing regulations from
neighboring spheres of law should be investigated as a matter of necessity.

Keywords:   Sustainability, Sustainability criteria, Biofuels, Directive
2009/28/EC.


   Evgenia Pavlovskaia, Ph.D. Candidate, Faculty of Law, Lund University, Sweden, evgenia.
   pavlovskaia@jur.lu.se. I would like to thank the Law Faculty at Lund University, Sweden, and
   Vilhelm Persson, its Head, for providing extremely convenient research conditions. I would
   also like to express my deep gratitude to Annika Nilsson, Karin Ericsson and Bengt Lundell,
   my research supervisors, and Carl Dalhammar, my critical opponent, for their guidance and
   useful commentaries on the present research work. My special thanks are extended to the Elsa
   Eschelsson's Funding for its financial support.

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