EU Biofuel Reform Plan Risks Undermining Waste-Based Fuels: Industry

by Sean Goulding Carroll (EURACTIV.com) The European Commission’s proposal to halt advanced biofuels from being double-counted towards road transport energy targets would diminish the use of waste-based fuels in favour of cheaper crop-based biofuels, a leading industry organisation has told EURACTIV.

Under current legislation, advanced biofuels from waste sources such as used cooking oil and animal fats are counted twice towards road transport targets. But this would come to an end under a recently unveiled proposal by the European Commission, presented in July as part of its ‘Fit for 55’ package of climate laws.

Scrapping the use of so-called ‘multipliers’ – an accounting method that incentivises investment in new and more expensive green technology by inflating its contribution to renewable energy targets – will see waste biofuels “pushed out of the market by cheaper, less sustainable alternatives and investments of billions of euros annihilated” according to the European Waste-based and Advanced Biofuels Association (EWABA).

“The multiplier for wastes and residues has been one of the great success stories of [the EU Renewable Energy Directive]. While it might not be a popular mechanism with the crop-based biofuel industry, for obvious reasons, double-counting has been demonstrated to be extremely effective,” said Leonidas Kanonis, director for communications and analysis at EWABA.

However, the updated renewable energy directive as proposed in July removes the use of multipliers for road transport. Instead, the European Commission wants to apply a 1.2x boost for advanced biofuels used in the aviation and maritime sectors.

Not all agree that removing multipliers will harm efforts to decarbonise EU road traffic. The Advanced Biofuels Coalition LSB, an industry body that comprises 11 companies, told EURACTIV that the decision to remove multipliers represents “real progress”.

The organisation characterised multipliers as a way for EU countries to meet targets while using only half of the biofuels volume represented.

Those in the crop-based biofuels industry similarly argue that the use of multipliers hides Europe’s reliance on oil and gas.

“The Commission’s proposal to end the use of multipliers is good news for the fight against climate change because it ends what was essentially an accounting trick to hide the EU’s continued dependence on fossil fuels for transport,” Emmanuel Desplechin, secretary-general of the renewable ethanol company ePURE, told EURACTIV in July. READ MORE