Global principles for sustainable biofuel production and trade

This article examines international attempts to regulate the production of and trade in biofuels by establishing criteria and indicators and certification schemes. It focuses on the norms underlying the criteria and the community constructed on the basis of them. The theoretical approach here rests on a discussion of these norms and on their constitutive role. This role creates a community and gives an institutional basis for the global public domain. Accordingly, different norms create the network on which environmental governance is based. It is assumed that commonly accepted criteria form a common norm. The article analyses eleven criteria and indicator systems and compares the criteria adopted. Eight were created for biofuels and bioenergy and three are used in forest certification. Comparison reveals that the criterion aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is used in Northern systems, whereas commonly accepted environmental criteria are biodiversity and minimization of pollution. The web of norms on which biofuel production and trade is based comprises environmental norms together with the general norm of sovereignty and the norms of the market economy.

Eero PalmujokiEmail: