MEPs Raise Ambition on Transport with ‘Sustainable’ Biofuels

by Paola Tamma (EurActiv) Contrary to the European Commission’s initial proposal, the European Parliament voted on Tuesday (28 November) to increase targets for sustainable energy and reintroduce a sub-target for transport, by using “sustainable” biofuels.

MEPs also reintroduced a nationally binding sub-target for the share of renewable energy in the transport sector – equivalent to 12% by 2030. Currently at 10%, the Commission had dropped this target in its recast proposal due to public opposition to deforestation driven by crop-based biofuels.

MEPs in the ITRE committee plan to achieve this target via biofuels and biogas that are compliant with the Commission’s rules on greenhouse-gas emission savings.

This excludes oil-based biodiesel, but includes crop-based bioethanol: “The threshold is 50% [of GHG savings compared to fossil fuels] and we do on average 66%, so even if indirect emissions are to be included, we would still be well above 50%,” said Emmanuel Desplechin, secretary-general of ePure, representing bioethanol industries in Brussels.

MEPs also upped the so-called “blending obligation” for fuel suppliers to include 10% of advanced biofuels (waste-based as opposed to crop-based) in their petrol pumps by 2030 (the Commission proposed 6.8%).

But this clashes with the position adopted by the ENVI committee in October. The report by Green MEP Bas Eickhout scrapped the sub-target for renewable energy in transport and called for a phase-out of crop-based biofuels by 2030.

Likewise, environmental NGOs are afraid that a high target for renewable energy in transport combined with a weak sustainability framework will drive consumption of crop-based biofuels because they are the cheaper option.

“If you mix everything in a single target, it is not the most sustainable or advanced who get the bigger share, but the cheapest ones,” said Laura Buffet, a policy officer at Transport & Environment.

Alex Mason of WWF criticised the Commission’s GHG savings rule, which don’t include emissions from indirect land use change caused by biofuels but only from processing and transport, and which he fears could drive increased use of wood for energy.

Emmanuel Desplechin, Secretary General of ePURE, the European renewable ethanol association, said: “The push by MEPs to reinstate a 2030 renewables in transport target increased at 12%, together with the endorsement of an advanced biofuels sub-target, are a step in the right direction. But at the same time they would not allow Member States to use all sustainable renewable fuels like EU ethanol in their energy mix. As part of a complex architecture setting another 10% obligation for fuel suppliers to blend in low-emission fuels, MEPs voted to prevent Member States from using crop-based ethanol – which delivers 66% average greenhouse-gas reduction compared to fossil petrol. In doing so they reduced its contribution even further than what the Commission initially proposed, putting into question the achievability of the objectives without artificial multipliers.

It will now be up to the Plenary of the European Parliament and Member States to fix this. In their plenary vote in January, MEPs need to move the Parliament’s position closer to what Council has spelled out coherently in its proposed position. Instead of throwing out existing solutions that work, build on them by leaving in place the 7% cap on crop-based biofuels and promoting advanced biofuels as part of an overall renewables in transport target. It is only by embracing all of these sustainable solutions, and by combining low-carbon fuels like ethanol with renewable electricity, that the EU will have any chance of meeting its climate goals for transport.” READ MORE