Different Paths Towards Sustainable Biofuels? A Comparative Study of the International, EU, and Chinese Regulation of the Sustainability of Biofuels

Biofuels are promoted as a type of renewable energy from biomass that replaces fossil fuels in transportation, in an attempt to achieve the three-fold objectives of energy security, rural development, and GHG emission reductions. However, the increased consumption and production of biofuels have been increasingly subject to criticism for their potential negative impacts on environmental and socio-economic sustainability, and these impacts could be intertwined and have implications ranging from local to global scales. Concerns over sustainability of biofuels have already led to regulatory measures particularly for biofuels in various legal systems, but the cross-cutting and multi-scale nature of the sustainability issue increases the complexity of regulation. In this context, this book is dedicated to a comparative analysis on the state-of-the affairs of the regulatory approaches to sustainability of biofuels in the international, EU, and Chinese legal frameworks, examining whether they may inclusively address sustainability concerns in environmental and socio-economic dimensions. This book finally concludes with observations from the comparative analysis, on the premise of which recommendations are made regarding the prospect for an inclusive regulatory approach to sustainability of biofuels taking account of the existing harmonisation, integration, transplantation, and convergence effects at different levels.