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How Europe can get a head-start on its Clean Mobility goals

28.03.2018

The EU’s Clean Mobility Package aims to reduce road transport emissions in the long term. But it’s missing out on important solutions that are available right now – at a time when GHG emissions are still on the rise.

How can Europe ignore the contribution that sustainable biofuels like renewable ethanol are already making in the effort to reduce emissions? By focusing solely on tailpipe emissions from cars, it fails to consider the contribution of low-carbon liquid fuels such as ethanol, both in terms of emissions reduction and energy efficiency.

Moreover, the Commission proposal does not incentivize decarbonisation through fuel improvements, such as higher blends of sustainable biofuels. There is no commitment to decarbonising future new cars with internal combustion engines, even though – as the International Renewable Energy Agency has pointed out – this will continue to be an urgent need post-2020.

A more realistic approach to achieving EU clean mobility goals requires incentivising sustainable low-carbon liquid fuels as an immediate, cost-effective solution to decarbonising transport with existing infrastructure and internal combustion engines that will still be prevalent on the road in the coming decades.

As the process of deciding on the post-2020 light vehicles CO2 standards begins, the EU should prioritise:

  • adopting a technology neutral approach to realistically decarbonise EU transport sector
  • ensuring policy continuity and consistency
  • promoting conventional fuels improvements and the deployment of low-carbon liquid fuels

To find out more about how the EU can really achieve clean mobility goals, click here.

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