ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to demystify some of the terms while exploring the circumstances under which competing claims around bioenergy and climate change may hold true. Attempting to understand diverging views around bioenergy and climate change can be a daunting task, requiring one to enter a world of complex terms, concepts and acronyms, including: life cycle assessment (LCA), greenhouse gas (GHG) savings, carbon debt, carbon payback, indirect land use change (iLUC) and carbon-negative biofuels. The EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) is an example of a policy tool that incentivises the production of biofuels while restricting its incentives to biofuels that meet basic sustainability standards. The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) promotes biofuels by mandating their use by fuel refiners and importers, with different GHG saving requirements set for three different categories of renewable fuel. The EU also provides an additional incentive for biofuels produced from wastes or cellulosic feedstock's by allowing them to be "double-counted" against the biofuel targets of member states.
