Sustainability for Whom? The discursive framing of ‘sustainable biofuels’ in the EU and Indonesia

Abstract: In order to transform the fossil fuel dependent transport sector the promotion of biofuels has been crucial in the European Union’s transition towards climate neutrality. To ensure the sustainability of biofuels the European Commission published a Delegated Act on March 13th 2019, proposing the gradual phase-out of high emitting biofuels that may cause indirect land use change (ILUC) – one of them being palm oil. This policy change has activated debates both in Europe and in major palm oil producing countries such as Indonesia – in which concerns over development trade-offs have been intensified. With the aim of illuminating the political debate on the proposed ILUC Directive, this paper takes the approach of environmental discourse analysis to analyze the argumentative rationality in official documents and other written or spoken statements uttered by identified discourse coalitions in the EU and in Indonesia. With background against the theories of ecological modernization and uneven development, the findings suggest that the ILUC Directive reflects the story-lines held by the European Commission that build on the ideas of ecological modernization. The rival discourses, led by the Indonesian state, non-governmental organizations and local actors demonstrate the deviating opinions in which different forms of development trade-offs are emphasized.