In an effort to ensure that all biofuels (produced and imported by EU member countries) are products of sustainable practices, the European Commission (EC) recently set up a scheme for the certification of sustainable biofuels. The scheme is embodied by two Communication documents and one Decision document. The highlights of the scheme (as reported by the EC press release) are: "(1) Sustainable Biofuel Certificates: The Commission encourages industry, governments and NGOs to set up "voluntary schemes" to certify biofuel sustainability – and explains the standards these must meet to gain EU recognition. One of the main criteria is that they have independent auditors who check the whole production chain, from the farmer and the mill, via the trader, to the fuel supplier who delivers petrol or diesel to the filling station. The Communication sets standards requiring this auditing to be reliable and fraud-resistant; (2) Protecting untouched nature: The Communication explains that biofuels should not be made from raw materials from tropical forests or recently deforested areas, drained peatland, wetland or highly biodiverse areas – and how this should be assessed. It makes clear that the conversion of a forest to a palm oil plantation would fall foul of the sustainability requirements; and  (3) Promote only biofuels with high greenhouse gas savings. The Communication reiterates that Member States have to meet binding, national targets for renewable energy and that only those biofuels with high greenhouse gas savings count for the national targets, explaining also how this is calculated. Biofuels must deliver greenhouse gas savings of at least 35% compared to fossil fuels, rising to 50% in 2017 and to 60%, for biofuels from new plants, in 2018.