Brussels, Wednesday,13^th December: Current RED 2 proposals would see oil's share of transport sector energy increase and represents a "phase in" of oil to "phase out" biofuels a consortium of biofuel trade associations and leading producers from 6 Central Eastern European member states say in a joint submission to the European Council.

“Greenwashed oil would be the major beneficiary of RED 2. Even if the most optimistic forecast of 280 million electric cars on the world’s roads by 2040 is realised, this would still represent less than 1% of global CO₂ emissions, so other tools should also be taken into account to reduce the GHG emissions significantly”, Danail Kamenov from Almagest, Bulgaria said.

“There is abundant (and sustainable) biomass potential in the V4+. Bioenergy and biofuels, are an avenue that can be mobilised”, Adam Stępień from the Polish biofuels association said.

“They can help close the yield gap with Western Europe and help stop current tragic rates of abandonment of agricultural land. They can bring abandoned and degraded land back into production and bring dignified sustainable jobs to suffering rural areas. V4+ farming would be hurt seriously by limiting the demand from conventional biofuels,” Zuzana Jakubičková from the Slovakian biofuels association said.

‘We should strike the right balance among the pace of the technological development, the stability of the agricultural markets, and meeting with the Paris goals in order to reach a sustainable growth and maintain jobs in each and every EU Member State. Sustainable European biofuels are just the best available tool for it,’ Ferenc Hódos from the Hungarian Biofuel Association.

The joint statement calls on the Council to equally treat biofuels based on actual GHG saving and to promote actual use of renewable energy instead of virtual achievements via multiple counting.

A 12% minimum level of actual (not multiple counted) renewable energy in the transport sector in 2030 should be part of the RED II. Under the Presidency's draft, a 2030 actual RES-T mix of 1.8% RES in electric vehicles and 3% RES from advanced biofuels would (due to the application of multiple counting) result in a nominal 12% RES-T achievement. That 12% would be comprised of 4.8% actual renewable energy and 7.2% oil. That would make "greenwashed" oil the major beneficiary of the RED II.
 

For further information contact: 

Zuzana Jakubičková 
email: zuzana.jakubickova@lehnert.sk