March 28. 2024. 2:25

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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.

In March, EU negotiators struck a deal on the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). The final vote is currently on hold due to a spat over the role of nuclear energy in clean hydrogen production.

Under the revised rules for the transport sector, EU countries must oblige fuel companies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of their used fuels by at least 14.5% by 2030. Alternatively, they can opt for a target of 29% renewable energy for all energy used within the transport sector.

The revised rules also require at least 5.5% of the energy used in the transport sector to come from either advanced biofuels or synthetic, hydrogen-derived fuels, known as e-fuels. However, this is halved in practice due to the double counting of such fuels towards the target.

For Germany, the 14.5% target could be reached as fast as 2028, according to a scenario developed by German biofuel association VDB. This is based on the currently planned roll-out of alternative fuels, such as biofuels and synthetic fuels, as well as electric mobility.

Due to the growing use of electric vehicles, which can be credited under the rules, the target would theoretically be overachieved in the years afterwards.

However, as fuel providers have no obligation or incentive to overachieve the target, in practice, this would lead to a decrease in the use of conventional biofuels, the industry fears.

“The result would simply be a crowding out of other fulfilment options,” Marco Zühlke, sustainability advisor at VDB told participants at a conference in Berlin on Thursday (11 May). This would affect “all those that do not have a sub-quota,” including crop-based biofuels, he added.

Theoretically, the REDIII 2030 target could be reached in Germany without the use of any conventional biofuels, the scenario shows.

For Germany to achieve the REDIII’s greenhouse-gas emissions quota, “it is sufficient to use renewable electricity from e-mobility and rail as well as the combined sub-quota [for advanced biofuels and e-fuels],” Zühlke said.

“For Germany, the one-to-one implementation [of the new REDIII] would be a step backwards,” he warned.

EU renewable energy deal backs biofuels to cut transport emissions

The amount of biofuels in Europe’s transport sector is expected to increase after the European Parliament and EU countries agreed in the early hours of Thursday (30 March) on new rules to spur the use of renewable energy across the bloc.

Roll-out of electric vehicles not moving as fast as needed

The German government plans to have 15 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030.

To reach that goal, 5,000 new fully electric vehicles would need to be registered every day, according to think-tank Agora Verkehrswende. However, in April 2023, this number was only at 991, the organisation said.

Meanwhile, the German government is in an internal dispute on whether to continue using biofuels made with dedicated energy crops, such as rapeseed or wheat.

While the environment ministry, led by Green minister Steffi Lemke, had announced the desire to phase those out by 2030, the transport ministry, led by liberal FDP minister Volker Wissing, does not want to do so. It considers all types of biofuels to be indispensable to reaching the climate targets set by the German government.

With the adoption of the new EU rules, which have to be implemented into national law within 18 months, this debate could take a new turn.

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.

NGO considers fuel switch to be overrated

Under its current law, Germany has a higher greenhouse gas emissions reduction target for transport fuels of 25% by 2030, meaning that implementing only the new EU minimum target of 14.5% would lower the amount of renewable fuel needed.

“We hope that the German implementation will consider this and will not take a step backwards compared to the REDII implementation,” Zühlke said.

However, not all stakeholders agree that an ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) quota for fuels would be a good idea.

“Central to the understanding of the GHG quota is that a reduction in specific emissions does not necessarily go hand in hand with a reduction in absolute emissions,” a briefing by NGO Transport & Environment reads.

“The GHG quota sets no incentives to avoid transport or to shift to climate-friendly alternatives and only weak incentives to electrify transport,” the organisation argues.

“Often, the reduction on paper does not correspond to a real emission reduction because, for example, the enormous land consumption for the production of agrofuels is not taken into account,” the T&E briefing adds.

The organisation has called for a phase-out of crop-based biofuels, pointing to competition for agricultural space with food production, as well as nature conservation.

To reduce the need to use crop-based biofuels, in T&E’s view, “the [German GHG] quota should be reduced within the framework provided by EU legislation.”

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