EU renewable ethanol producers statement on the European Commission’s proposed revision of CO2 standards for cars and vans
Reducing transport emissions is a goal we all share, and the Commission proposal is at least an admission that betting on only one technology to do this, electrification, was not the way to succeed.
But the proposal does not go far enough, and instead risks hamstringing the EU’s own transport de-fossilisation ambitions by excluding sustainable crop-based biofuels and limiting its definition of sustainable fuels to e-fuels and biofuels produced from Annex IX feedstocks. To see this limitation in the legal text is especially surprising after hearing Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra say only a day earlier at the presentation of the proposal that the revision would also include “first-generation biofuels”.
In any case, it’s clear that the EU needs all workable solutions to reducing emissions from the cars that European consumers continue to prefer and will be driving for a long time.
Renewable ethanol reduces already today 79% GHG emissions compared to fossil fuel. It is widely available, affordable and it should play an integral part in defossilisation of the EU road transport and not be an auxiliary optional GHG emissions savings crutch.
Crop-based ethanol already meets the strictest sustainability criteria in the world, and its production creates no deforestation or food shortages. In fact ethanol production is an important source of EU food production. As a recent study from the Nova Institute confirms, killing the EU production of crop-based biofuels will have dire consequences for EU farmers, removing one of their most important markets, and will thus weaken EU food security.
If the debate on reducing car emissions has proven anything, it’s that Europe needs a more flexible approach to achieving its transport defossilisation goals: one that includes sustainable liquid fuels that reduce emissions now and will continue doing so in the decades to come.
