In an effort to reach climate neutrality by 2050, experts say all technological options must be exploited, while synthetic fuels are currently still being treated very unfairly.
In a recent joint letter, 223 associations, companies, and scientists call on the EU Commission to include a voluntary crediting system for sustainable renewable fuels in the CO2 emission standards regulation for new vehicles.
We are convinced that electrification will play a major role in road transport. But we think, it’s wrong to put all our eggs in one basket and rule out complementary solutions.
…Ralf Diemer, managing director of the eFuel Alliance said.
At the moment, vehicles whose CO2 footprint has been demonstrably offset by renewable fuels over the entire life of the vehicle should be recognised as “climate neutral” in the CO2 emission standards regulation in the same way as electric vehicles.
A proposed system for crediting renewable fuels was developed in 2020 by Frontier Economics on behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.
The system has the following advantages:
- It is voluntary. This means, any manufacturer can use renewable fuels if customers want or targets are missed, but does not have to.
- Only additional quantities of renewable fuels count. This provides even more climate protection.
- It sends clear investment signals to the fuel industry.
- The existing limits and strict sustainability criteria of conventional biofuels must be respected. This excludes the possibility of a crediting system increasing the share of conventional biofuels. On the contrary, investments will flow into advanced biofuels and eFuels.
- The crediting of renewable fuels is an additional safeguard for the automotive industry should unexpected risks arise during the ramp-up of e-mobility. These could include political problems arising from a dependency on rare raw materials, unexpected electricity price increases, recycling issues, customer acceptance issues, infrastructure problems, etc.
As explained, in order to be able to achieve the climate protection goals, the replacement of fossil fuels must be accelerated.
This can only succeed if, in addition to the expansion of electromobility, the use of climate-neutral fuels is also promoted, and if e-mobility and regenerative fuels complement each other through a technology-open discussion and binding framework conditions.
The signatories of this letter are clearly against a distribution discussion of hydrogen and eFuels. There is enough renewable energy potential worldwide. eFuels enable the storage and transport of these additional amounts of energy.
To achieve the climate goals, the hydrogen economy needs to ramp up as quickly as possible. Every sector that can make a decisive contribution through its high willingness to pay without subsidies should be considered. To this end, the crediting of renewable fuels in the CO2 fleet regulation must be made possible now, the letter urges.
