Commission sees crop biofuels’ clean transport value, but outside EU

The European Commission has recognised the role of crop-based biofuels in decarbonising transport, despite pushing through legislation for their phase-out domestically.

At a G7 meeting in Hiroshima late last month, the world’s richest countries adopted a document, also signed by the EU, in which the value of biofuels – among other options – in decarbonising road transport was acknowledged.

“We highlight the various actions that each of us is taking to decarbonise our vehicle fleet, including […] to promote sustainable carbon-neutral fuels including sustainable bio- and synthetic fuels,” the document reads.

But at EU level, the Commission is pushing to limit the use of crop-based biofuels such as bioethanol or biodiesel, to ensure that “the pressure on land use is limited”, a Commission spokesperson told Euractiv.

Instead, the EU executive promotes electric cars and so-called advanced biofuels such as biomass waste and agricultural and forest residues.

For its part, the biofuel industry admits that electrification is the future for road transport, but it will take many years as well as major investments in advanced biofuels to fully replace oil.

Instead, the biofuel industry says crop-based biofuels, such as ethanol, should be part of the energy mix, otherwise road transport will switch back to oil because of lack of alternatives.

The industry also claims that the average GHG reduction of EU ethanol is 77%, but some refineries are approaching 100% by using CO2 capture.

But unlike the rest of the world, the Commission insists that crop-based biofuels are not an option for Europe.

“Their use should be minimised”, the EU spokesperson said.

Asked to explain why the EU sees the value of crop-based biofuels abroad but not domestically, a source close to the matter commented that the text was diplomatically written suggesting that the goal among G7 signatories is “common but the means are varied”.

Under EU rules, the contribution of first generation biofuels to renewable energy targets for road transport is capped at 7%.

The role of crop-based biofuels has proven divisive in Europe, with supporters portraying them as a cost-effective means to remove fossil fuels from the transport sector, while critics have questioned their climate credentials.

European green campaigners have argued that the land used to grow energy crops would make a greater climate contribution by being rewilded to capture carbon.

World invests in ethanol

Unlike the EU, key economies worldwide have invested in bioethanol to decarbonise transport. According to the latest International Energy Agency (IEA) report, Asian countries, the US, and Brazil will form a big part of biofuel production globally.

In Washington, the White House is currently reviewing a proposal made by the US Environmental Protection Agency requiring oil refiners to add 20.82 billion gallons of biofuels to their fuel in 2023, 21.87 billion gallons in 2024, and 22.68 billion gallons in 2025.

Of these, corn-based ethanol and other biofuels represent more than 15 billion gallons annually, while the rest is advanced fuels, according to Reuters.

Similarly Japan, also a G7 member, recently published its new biofuel policy, which heavily relies on ethanol, allowing the US to capture “up to 100% of Japan’s on-road ethanol market”.

Bharadwaj Kummamuru, the director of World Bioenergy Association, recently told Euractiv that countries like India have already exceeded the E10 target and now aim for E20 by 2025.

E10 and E20 refer to petrol containing up to 10% and 20% ethanol respectively.

Read more: Bioenergy chief: Still stuck in ‘food vs fuel’ debate, EU is missing global biofuel trend

E10 gaining ground in Europe

The Commission spokesperson insisted that the executive supports member states in using possibilities “to reduce the blending proportion of biofuels which could lead to a reduction of EU agricultural land used for production of biofuel feedstocks”.

But in Europe, E10 is increasingly gaining ground in member states who struggle to meet their clean transport targets.

To date, 18 EU countries together with Norway and the UK have rolled out E10 in petrol stations.

The latest was Poland, where in late May the parliament unanimously backed new legislation promoting E10 in Polish gas stations.

“After more than a decade of discussion on E10 gasoline, we are finally catching up with the rest of Europe, giving a much-anticipated new economic boost to Polish agricultural distilleries and spirits plants, and with them to farmers,” Łukasz Karmowski, President of the Board of the Association of Polish Distilleries (ZGP), commented.

[Edited by Benjamin Fox]

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