UK Ban on ICE Vehicles Highlights How 'Policymakers Need to Pay Attention to What's Working Today'

Aviation Fuel/Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF)Business News/Analysis California Opinions Policy Sustainability UK (United Kingdom)

November 24, 2020

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by Ron Kotrba (Biobased Diesel Daily) ... U.K.'s government announced it is going one step further by banning the sale of new spark- and compression-ignition vehicles by 2030. A two-phased approach was announced Nov. 18.

Phase 1 will see the phase-out date for the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and vans brought forward to 2030 while Phase 2 will see all new cars and vans be fully "zero emission" at the tailpipe from 2035.

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According the U.K. government's own data, the largest share of fuel used to generate electricity in the U.K. in 2019 comes from a fossil fuel―natural gas―at 41 percent. Coal use was just more than 2 percent, and nuclear power generation in 2019 was more than 20 percent. Renewable electricity generation in the U.K. last year neared 37 percent.

Not only is the U.K. working through government edict to effectively shut the liquid fuels industries―which include carbon-cutting energy sources such as biodiesel and renewable diesel―out of the on-road transport market, but it is also pledging £582 million in grants to incentivize the transition.

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According to Hygate (James Hygate, founder and CEO of U.K.-based Green Fuels), replacing fossil hydrocarbon fuels with sustainable ones is the most immediate way forward. "This really should be the direction of biofuels," he said. "So, as biofuels producers, there is still a huge opportunity but we should be focused on the future and enabling the transition towards such fuels―and as custodians of the planet, we should be celebrating the fact that there is a definitive move away from fossil carbon fuels in the road fleet."

Paul Winters, director of public affairs and federal communications for the U.S.-based National Biodiesel Board, said there will be a need for heavy-duty engines in trucking, shipping and air transport well into the future. "Low-carbon fuels like biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel are reducing transportation carbon emissions today―a valuable step to achieving climate goals down the road," Winters told Biobased Diesel Daily concerning the growing trend of governments banning ICE engines. "For example, nearly a quarter of California's diesel pool today is made up of low-carbon biodiesel and renewable diesel. California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard program cut 14.6 million tons of carbon in 2019, with biodiesel and renewable diesel use in existing engines and infrastructure accounting for 45 percent of the cuts. Policymakers need to pay attention to what's working today."

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In October, the UKPIA (U.K. Petroleum Industry Association) launched a report titled "Transition, Transformation and Innovation: Our Role in the Net-Zero Challenge." The report looks at credible scenarios and proposes an illustrative pathway for the U.K. downstream sector to achieve government-mandated net-zero targets, with practical policy solutions to help overcome this challenge.

Three key findings of the report are:

Low carbon liquid fuels can play a key role in the U.K.'s decarbonization―and are doing so already
Hydrogen is a critical component of meeting net-zero―the downstream sector is the largest producer of hydrogen in the world and can maintain and grow its role in producing and delivering zero-carbon emitting hydrogen
A systems-based approach and enabling policy framework is required to produce low carbon and eventually net-zero liquid fuels. READ MORE

Panel Discusses What’s Ahead for Greener Diesel (Diesel Technology Forum)

Future outlook: Diesel to play ‘important role’ in path to zero emissions (Diesel Technology Forum)

Gasoline Car Bans Show Why Market Forces Aren't Always Enough: Old habits and old technologies often find a way to stick around (Bloomberg Green)

EU proposes effective ban on new fossil-fuel cars from 2035 -- Commission proposes 55% cut in CO2 emissions from cars by 2030 (Gulf News/Reuters)