Biodiesel: The Green Fuel Bridging the EU’s Climate Ambitions

(Politico Studio) Decarbonizing the EU transport sector comes with huge challenges — European biodiesel producers have a key role to play -- With the European Green Deal in the spotlight, the electrification of road transport is taking center stage, promising a mobility makeover in the long run. While this is important, there’s an urgent need to make use of all existing solutions to tackle the footprint of the existing vehicle fleet.

In July, policymakers will kick-off a revision process of key European legislation underpinning the decarbonization of the transport sector to meet the EU’s overall goal of reducing emissions by 55 percent by 2030. The European sustainable biodiesel industry is an essential ally in helping the EU meet these green goals.

The EU is the world leader in the production and use of biodiesel for transport. It is the most widely-used biofuel in Europe today, with more than 14 million tons consumed every year. European-produced biodiesel helps reduce the need for imports of fossil diesel, contributes significantly to the development of the circular and the bioeconomy, lowers the need for animal feed imports and strengthens the rural economy. The European biodiesel industry represents 25,000 jobs directly linked to biodiesel production in Europe, which are part of the 220,000 total jobs of the EU biofuels sector.

Electric vehicles will not be enough to reach the 2030 climate goals, and the electrification of road transport will not happen overnight. It will require a long transition in which all available alternatives will have their role to play. This includes using more biodiesel, particularly for light and heavy-duty vehicles, trucks, buses and agricultural machinery.

There are also aviation, maritime and inland shipping — sectors very difficult to electrify — that will require increased biodiesel use.

This is also the message the European Biodiesel Board (EBB) has been spearheading in EU policy circles as a way of stepping up the greening of the European transport sector. The EBB is the industry association that brings together 34 biodiesel-producing companies across 21 member countries, representing 75 percent of the European biodiesel output, including crop, as well as waste-based and advanced biodiesel.

Although the environmental benefits of biofuels are well measured, some still voice concerns regarding the use of farmland for crop-based biofuel production, to the detriment of the food supply. However, the European Commission’s latest renewable energy progress report found no correlation between biofuels demand and food prices, which also highlighted the significant greenhouse gas emission savings delivered by the biofuels sector. Still, EU policymakers remain reluctant, which prevents putting in place the right conditions to unleash the full potential of sustainable crop-based biofuels like biodiesel. That’s limiting options for Monica’s grandparents, who are keen to sell more crops for biodiesel production from their countryside farm.

To allow a higher use of renewable fuels in transport, it is crucial to continue the work on new fuel standards and eliminate regulatory hurdles. One thing the EBB has been emphasizing is the need to increase the blending rate of biodiesel with fossil diesel. There is currently a 7 percent limit for FAME biodiesel into diesel, which hampers the use of higher biodiesel blends — a low-hanging fruit that can give a necessary boost to step up the decarbonization of road diesel fuel, according to the EBB. The upcoming revision of the Fuel Quality Directive is a good opportunity to dive into those options.

The EU is also looking to revise the Renewable Energy Directive and is expected to increase its target for renewables in transport. A revision aimed at increasing the renewable energy transport sector target to between 24 percent and 26 percent would be a great incentive to biodiesel producers and a boost for the rural economy, according to the EBB.

Biodiesel has proven its sustainability, reliability and efficiency in recent years. With the right tools, sustainable biodiesel can flow into Europeans’ tanks when they fill up over the next few years and public transport commutes can also become cleaner as more city buses take on the fuel. READ MORE

Excerpt from TPN/Lusa/The Portugal News: The most recent study by the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E in the original acronym), indicates that due to Europe's greed for biofuels, four million hectares of forests will have been destroyed between 2010 and 2020, eliminating, for example, 10 percent of what remains of the world's favourable habitats for orangutans.

Since 2010, the report says, Europe has burned about 39 million tonnes of palm and soy biodiesel in its cars and trucks, emitting up to three times more carbon dioxide than through the fossil diesel it replaced.

According to T&E the European Union (EU) needs to phase out support for all biofuels from food crops by 2030. Zero argues it is essential that biofuels are produced primarily from waste.

T&E is a non-governmental organisation established 30 years ago that advocates a mobility system without carbon dioxide emissions. READ MORE