German Government Mulls Limiting Biofuel Production

by Julia Dahm (EURACTIV.de translated by Daniel Eck) Germany’s environment and agriculture ministries are reportedly working on restrictions for biofuel production so more grain can be used as human food as agriculture markets remain strained due to the war in Ukraine. EURACTIV Germany reports.

Together with Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir, Environment Minister Steffi Lemke is currently looking to reduce the production of biofuels made from grain or oilseeds, Lemke told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper on Friday (29 April).

Agricultural raw materials such as rapeseed, grain, and beet have often been used to produce additives mixed with climate-damaging fossil fuels to improve their CO2 balance.

“Agricultural land is limited worldwide, and we urgently need it for food, as the war in Ukraine dramatically demonstrates,” Lemke also said. From her point of view, agricultural land should be used for food production instead of for the tank, she explained.

The Green minister also pointed out that Germany had already decided to no longer recognise diesel with added palm oil as environmentally friendly biofuel. Now she also wants to reduce further the use of agrofuels in food and animal feed.

Lemke’s party colleague, Özdemir, recently expressed similar views on several occasions.

The Green ministers are also supported by Development Minister Svenja Schulze of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). In Germany, 5% of arable land is used for biofuel production, she told the newspaper Handelsblatt.

It is not yet clear to what extent Transport Minister Volker Wissing of the liberal FDP would support Lemke’s initiative. A permanent exchange between the ministries is ongoing, a transport ministry spokesperson told EURACTIV.

“We need renewable fuels, especially for ships and aircraft, but also for road transport,” the spokesperson added, without commenting on details on content.

“The options for action in this field are broad: from advanced biofuels to electricity-based fuels, each in liquid or gaseous form,” he added.

However, such arguments have been dismissed by the biofuel industry as “ridiculous”, which also emphasises that biofuel production does produce not only fuel but also food and animal feed.

In a statement, Germany’s Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants “emphatically rejected a change in the existing regulations on maximum quantities for biofuel.”

Behind the use of rapeseed oil for biodiesel is “a production and processing structure that has grown over decades and is now closely networked with other industries, including the food industry,” the union also said.

According to data from the agriculture ministry, biofuels covered around 6.5% of Germany’s total demand for fuel in 2020, including almost three million tonnes of biodiesel and 1.2 million tonnes of bioethanol. READ MORE

Excerpt from Biofuels International: No concrete proposals have been outlined and a working group has been set up between the environment and agriculture ministries to coordinate the change.

The reduction of the cap below 4.4 % is legally very simple because all that is needed is an amendment to the ordinance, which the Federal Government, can adopt without the approval of the Bundestag.

Dieter Bockey, of UFOP, said: "At present, we cannot rule out whether the law regulating the GHG quota will also be amended. "Should this be the case, however, the intervention would have a greater impact because it would lower the achievement of the climate protection target in the transport sector, because currently and in the coming years only biofuels (from cultivated biomass, residues, waste) can make a measurable contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases in the transport sector.

"To this end, the Federal Climate Protection Act stipulates mandatory annual emission ceilings for each sector, which may not be exceeded, otherwise the minister of traffic concerned must submit measures at short notice to ensure compliance with the emission target. This deadline is three months and must be implemented within the calendar year."

According to UFOP, if there is a shortfall of about 10 million tonnes of CO2 reduction from biofuels from cultivated biomass, it is not entirely clearwhere the reduction is supposed to come from.

She added: "Against this background, the biofuels sector is eager to see what will be agreed between the two ministries." READ MORE