The Carbon and Food Opportunity Costs of Biofuels in the EU27 plus the UK - Heidelberg, 2023

8 The Carbon & Food Opportunity Costs of Biofuels in the EU+UK ifeu 2 Methodology and data 2.1 Research questions The focus of this study is to compare the officially reported emission savings from blending biofuels with fossil fuels on the one hand, and the carbon opportunity costs arising from the land requirements of biofuel production on the other. [...] the amount of biofuel refuelled in Eu- rope and accounted for the fulfilment of the RED mandates), the analysis of production only intends to give an estimation of the amount based on cultivation within Europe. [...] 16 The Carbon & Food Opportunity Costs of Biofuels in the EU+UK ifeu In order to complete the picture of biofuels in Europe, the inventory of countries missing in the aggregation in Table 2 has to be derived by assumptions. [...] Measuring human intervention in ecosystem 38 The Carbon & Food Opportunity Costs of Biofuels in the EU+UK ifeu The degree of intensity or level of human intervention in the natural self-regulation of eco- systems can also be quantified within the framework of the life cycle assessment method. [...] Carbon opportunity costs of biofuels Within the framework of the study, an average annual increment of carbon stocks of 66.3 million t CO2 has been estimated for the rewilding of the areas currently occupied for the production of biofuels consumed in Europe.