On November 19-20, 2012, the Copenhagen Biofuels Research Network (COBREN) held an international conference on sustainable biofuels inviting 30 researchers from around the world to present and discuss their latest research. During the two day conference focus was the sustainability criteria of the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), voluntary certification schemes and their impacts on sustainability and social safeguards in producer (developing) countries in particular, and governance complexity of the biofuel system, which has grown considerably over the past decade.