BP pushes to extend definition of ‘advanced’ biofuels as green aviation targets loom

Oil giant BP Europe is pushing for a revision of the EU’s rules for biofuels, fossil fuel alternatives made from crops, animal fats, and waste, to allow more crops into the EU’s definition of ‘advanced’ biofuels that can be used for aviation.

As part of its ‘Green Deal’, the EU hopes to slash transport sector emissions by 90% until 2050, a task proving difficult as unrestricted mobility within the bloc is considered a key societal achievement. A key pillar of the targets therefore is the use of alternative liquid fuels, such as biofuels or synthetic fuels made with hydrogen, known as e-fuels.

But as investments into the more novel e-fuel technology have so far not materialised at a sufficient scale, and other raw materials for the production of biofuels are limited, BP hopes for a more flexible approach, which would see the criteria for what can be considered an ‘advanced’ biofuel extended.

EU targets for greener flights at risk amid lack of investment 

In a rare show of unity, environmental organisations and oil companies have both warned that the EU’s targets for green jet fuels are in danger of being missed as investment into the production of synthetic fuels is so far not materialising.

“Everyone knows feedstock, in particular waste, is limited,” Niels Anspach, vice president for bio and low-carbon fuels at BP Europe, told an industry conference in Berlin on Monday (22 January).

Under the EU’s current rules to reduce the climate damage from aviation, most alternative fuels are expected to come from waste materials such as used cooking oil.

But producing more waste just to produce more biofuels would be “irrational”, Anspach said.

“So we need to understand and come to smart solutions such as cover crops,” he added, asserting that with this approach the EU could be “getting out of this food vs fuel debate”.

‘Food vs fuel’ no more?

Food crops, which are used for biofuel production in other sectors such as road transport, are not allowed under the rules for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at present, as the sector wants to avoid a debate on the competition for land between food and fuel production – an issue that has seen the EU revise its rules for crop-based biofuels several times.

Unlike traditional food crops, cover crops are often planted ‘off-season’, between the main crop cycles, for the purpose of improving soil health. Supporters say this means they do not compete with food production.

Food vs fuel: German ministries clash over role of conventional biofuels

The German transport and environment ministries clashed again over the use of crop-based biofuels such as biodiesel and bioethanol, as debates over the best use of arable land intensify.

The rules governing which feedstocks are considered “advanced” biofuels, and hence eligible for use in aviation, are set in annex 9A of the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive, which was revised just last year.

Anspach said he would like to see cover crops such as Carinata included in the list, a crop which BP has already invested in, and stressed that “we should look across the whole range of cover crops”.

“We need to get more pragmatic about the annex 9A,” he said.

His remarks did not land well with producers of traditional biofuels, however, with Stephan Arens of UFOP, a German association of oil and protein plant producers, raising concerns that traditional biofuel crops such as rapeseed or wheat could be further restricted as a consequence.

“The discussion about a potential substitute product, or the new product ‘cover crops’, which would not have a fuel vs food debate, could lead to a further intensification of the discussion about cultivated biomass,” Arens said.

“That is perhaps why we take a particularly critical view of this.” 

New EU renewables rules could be a step back for German biofuels sector

The new greenhouse gas emission reduction target for transport fuels under the updated Renewable Energy Directive could reduce the amount of crop-based biofuels used in German road transport if implemented strictly, biofuel producers say.

Environmentalists sound the alarm

Environmental organisation Transport & Environment (T&E) also raised the alarm.

“The EU should not be swayed by BP’s calls to allow cover crop biofuels for SAF. They are not the ‘win-win’ the company claims they are,” Barbara Smailagic, the organisation’s biofuels expert, told Euractiv.

“Even though in Europe these feedstocks are mostly grown for environmental reasons, globally they are used to a large extent as cash crops in areas with multiple harvesting periods per year,” she said, adding that “there is a risk that we incentivise importing these feedstocks to Europe for biofuels that would otherwise in global markets be sold as food or feed, for example.”

“This creates market distortion in a similar way as food and feed biofuels do,” Smailagic concluded.

[Edited by Sean Goulding Carroll/Zoran Radosavljevic]

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