French constitutional court upholds law excluding palm oil from biofuel scheme

The French constitutional court has rejected an appeal by Total and upheld a law excluding palm oil from the national biofuel scheme. The constitutional court has ruled that the Parliament was right to adopt in late 2018 a resolution removing a tax exemption on palm oil-based products as of 1 January 2020, taking into account palm oil culture's indirect effects on greenhouse gas emissions. Total, which was investing €300m to convert its La Mede refinery into a biofuel plant, had then applied to the constitutional court, claiming that the new legislation would be a discrimination against palm oil.

Total started to produce biofuels at its La Mede biorefinery in July 2019. The project will process 60 to 70% from vegetable oils (rapeseed, palm, sunflower, etc.) and 30 to 40% from treated waste (animal fats, cooking oil, residues, etc.) to produce 500,000 t/year of biodiesel (hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO)). In May 2018, Total pledged to process up to 300,000 t/year of palm oil (i.e. less than 50% of the total volume of raw materials needed) and at least 50,000 t/year of French-grown rapeseed. In late 2018, the group threatened to cancel its commitment to buy French rapeseed if the tax exemption on palm oil was removed.