IEA highlights ethanol’s ‘untapped potential’ as a clean mobility solution

Renewable ethanol has a significant “untapped potential” for decarbonising transport, according to the International Energy Agency’s new Renewables 2018 market forecast report. The IEA confirms that bioenergy has a huge contribution to make in the global energy future.

Among the report’s key conclusions are that there should be a bigger scale-up of conventional and advanced biofuels, and that biofuels and EVs are complementary solutions to decarbonise transport.

“The IEA is right to point out that bioenergy is often overlooked in the global debate on renewables, even though it is making a significant contribution to decarbonisation, and could do a lot more if the right policies were in place,” said Emmanuel Desplechin, Secretary General of ePURE.

“This is especially true for ethanol, which in Europe is already delivering more than 70% average greenhouse-gas reduction compared to fossil fuel. Unfortunately, as the report notes, European policy support for biofuels is weakening at a time when they could help deliver even better GHG-reduction results – and at a time when other countries around the world are boosting ethanol as a transport energy solution.”

Both IEA and IRENA have consistently underlined the urgent need to boost biofuels in order to fight climate change.