ABSTRACT
In the European Union (EU), the narrative of the multiple benefits of agrofuels is reflected in the binding target of a 10 per cent agrofuels share in the fuel market. Its adoption in 2009 came during a period of time when agrofuels were fiercely criticized and the validity of this win-win narrative was strongly called into question. And yet the target was adopted and still remains in force. This chapter shows how it became possible for the win-win narrative to take hold in the EU, how it became entrenched in policy decisions, and how it was able to overcome the wave of ongoing criticism that began in 2007. It is argued that the neoliberalization of the win-win narrative – i.e. the tying of its validity to the development of global markets and technological innovation – helped to immunize the narrative against criticism and to reinforce the political strategy based upon it.
This chapter aims to show how it became possible for the narrative to take hold in the European Union and how it was able to overcome the wave of ongoing criticism that began in 2007. The influence of neoliberalism on environmental policy can be seen in the coupling of environmental policy goals to free market mechanisms, a development frequently referred to as the 'neoliberalization of nature', particularly in the field of political ecology. Discourse analysis makes it possible to show how such processes of neoliberalization proceed at the narrative level and how they manifest themselves in political decisions. The Renewable Energies Directive (RED) represents a neoliberalization of European agrofuel policy, which is expressed in the binding 10 per cent target as well as in the linking of the goal to sustainability criteria that, by means of incentivizing technological innovations, are intended to make possible an expansion of the global market and international trade.
