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The European Union (EU) stands at a crossroads regarding its biofuel policies. For more than a decade, the EU sought to create a market for and govern sustainable biofuels for the transport sector, even as debates over sustainability escalated. It did so by devising novel hybrid (public and private) governance arrangements. We took stock of the nature and outcomes of this experiment in hybrid biofuel governance. We relied on qualitative methods of analysis, whereby we reviewed and synthesized the evolution of EU biofuel governance arrangements over time, through detailed document analysis of secondary and primary literature, including EU and related policy documents and private certification scheme websites. Our analysis reveals that, instead of yielding an increasingly stringent sustainability framework, the hybrid EU governance arrangements resulted in a proliferation of relatively lax, industry-driven, sustainability standards, even as the notion of “sustainable biofuels” remained contested in public and political debate. These findings contribute to an ongoing debate about the merits of hybrid (public–private) governance arrangements, and whether a hybrid approach helps strengthen or weaken sustainability objectives. We conclude that a more stringent EU meta-standard on sustainability needs to be developed, to underpin future governance arrangements.

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This PhD is the end of a long journey. The project started in 2009 and over the course of writing this thesis, many people in different ways have helped and supported me. Not only with the research, interviews and contacts at various times and locations, but also with background support for a process that took longer and was more complicated than I originally anticipated. I would like to take this opportunity to say thanks to many of them. My interest for the topic originated from looking for a subject for my MSc thesis in 2007. During a debate in 'Hotel de Wereld' in Wageningen, I met Prem Bindraban who (quite spontaneously) invited me to join his research sabbatical in Brazil. Just two-and-a-half weeks later our adventure in Brazil began. During this trip we visited many people and projects varying from farmers, researchers, government officials and multi-stakeholder initiatives. We discovered the broad variety of the country and its very kind people. Therefore, thank you Prem for this amazing opportunity! It has been the basis of insights and information that has been invaluable in the whole process. Also, muito obrigada, Catarina Pezzo. We met during my first trip when you were appointed to show me around the WUR campus in Piracicaba and were finishing your own thesis. I am glad we have stayed in touch and met each other again in Brazil and the Netherlands where I could return the favour of hospitality. I would like to continue by expressing my gratitude to my promotors Arthur Mol and Aarti Gupta for their continuing support and persistence. Arthur Mol gave me the chance to pursue my research interest as a PhD student at the Environmental Policy group. His supervision and feedback always improved the quality of my work and in spite of a bumpy road, he has remained patient and allowed me to finish this thesis in my own time. I am also incredibly grateful to Aarti Gupta, because she has kept me going (one way or another). Without her guidance and support this project would probably never have been finished. Thank you! Many thanks also to ENP colleagues and fellow PhD candidates. You inspired me during many presentations and countless hallway discussions. Therefore, I would like to thank: