The European Commission (EC) today proposed strengthening the sustainability criteria for bioenergy and limiting the role of food-based biofuels as part of a package of measures designed to make the EU not only keep pace with but lead the clean energy transition.
The revised Renewable Energy Directive for the post-2020 period introduces a new sustainability criterion on forest biomass and a requirement that large-scale biomass electricity plants use high-efficient combined heat and power technology. According to the proposals, the EU sustainability criteria will be extended to cover solid biomass and biogas used in large heat and power plants. The plans also include a requirement for advanced biofuels to emit at least 70% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels.
In an effort to decarbonise the transport sector in a sustainable way, the Commission proposed an obligation on European transport fuel suppliers to provide an increasing share of renewable and low-carbon fuels, including advanced biofuels, renewable transport fuels of non-biological origin such as hydrogen, waste-based fuels and renewable electricity. That obligation would rise from 1.5% in 2021 in energy terms to 6.8% in 2030, including at least 3.6% of advanced biofuels. At the same time, the revised directive envisages a cap on the contribution of food-based biofuels towards the EU renewable energy target that will start at 7% in 2021 and fall to 3.8% in 2030.
The European renewable ethanol association (ePURE) said the proposal to phase out or significantly reduce the use of conventional biofuels ignored science and undermined the EUR 16 billion (USD 17bn) invested in European biofuel plants since 2003 as a result of the EU biofuels policy.
"The Commission is totally detached from reality if it expects that its proposal will result in significant investments in advanced biofuels, given that most of the potential investors have already been burned by the Commission's previous biofuels u-turns," said the association's secretary-general Robert Wright. He called for promoting advanced biofuels in addition to conventional biofuels.
(EUR 1.0 = USD 1.062)
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