Richard Sykes, on behalf of IPIECA, attended the recent meeting of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels (RSB) Steering Board. The Steering Board has now agreed the implementation of a new governance structure which consolidates many of the 11 ‘chambers’ in order to make the roundtable more manageable.

On the technical side, good progress is being made on Version 2.0 of the RSB Standard, including:

• Testing the practical implementation of Version 1.0 through pilot projects
• Agreement that there will be further study of indirect impacts
• Consideration of the greenhouse gas (GHG) methodology
• Discussion on setting a biofuel GHG performance threshold (the extent to which biofuel greenhouse gas (GHG) performance should be better than a fossil fuel benchmark)

The Steering Board reviewed the above and agreed a biofuel GHG Methodology. There was a consensus to look at practices which reduce the risk of indirect impacts, but the question of whether to develop an indirect Land Use Change (iLUC) factor was deferred pending further discussion. A biofuel GHG performance threshold was agreed.