Is EU biofuel policy realistic enough?

A new EURACTIV Special Report examines the current debate over the role biofuels should play in the EU’s long-term transport decarbonization plans. It covers such hot topics as sustainability criteria for biofuels, Europe’s plans to reduce imports of animal feed, and the EU’s ambitious vision of a carbon-neutral future.

The report includes five articles:

EU protein strategy: Commission working against Europe’s interest? EURACTIV highlights the paradoxical situation of the EU wanting to boost domestic production of protein while at the same time limiting the ability of the biofuels industry to grow.

Transport unplugged: Eyes turn to EU’s 2050 climate future: This article looks at the European Commission’s proposal for a long-term decarbonization strategy and asks whether policymakers are really considering all available solutions to achieving its energy goals.

An ethanol plant is not just about ethanol: In this video reportage, EURACTIV tours an ethanol biorefinery and interviews an industry expert, Pablo Vercruysse of Alco Bio Fuel, who highlights the added value of ethanol production for European agriculture and for emissions reduction.

EU talks on car CO2 curbs risk stalling: EURACTIV analyses the complex current EU negotiations on new CO2 emissions rules for cars and vans. The article also looks at how, by failing to consider entire full life-cycle emissions of various powertrain technologies, the EU forgets existing solutions like renewable biofuels.

The practical solution hidden in the EU’s 2050 climate-neutral strategy: ePURE’s Emmanuel Desplechin writes that the Commission’s new long-term decarbonisation strategy offers an ambitious vision of a carbon-neutral future for the EU and says almost all the right things, but it largely downplays the role of the cheapest possible carbon-abatement tool available today: sustainable biofuels.