Car, aviation and shipping industries would require 2-9 times the advanced biofuels that can be sustainably sourced in 2050.
Inserting a biofuels loophole in the EU 2035 cars law could see a huge spike in demand for biofuels from waste feedstocks like animal fats, used cooking oil and palm oil by-products, new T&E analysis finds. A car running on animal fats, for example, would require the equivalent of 120 pigs a year. This additional demand could lead to cars, planes and ships consuming two to nine times more advanced biofuels than can be sustainably sourced in the future.
The EU is under pressure from the fuels and cars industries to allow new combustion engines running on biofuels to be sold after its 2035 deadline for zero-emission cars. This loophole, which is also supported by the Italian government, would see cars gobble up the very limited supplies of sustainable, advanced biofuels and make it more difficult to green hard-to-decarbonise sectors like aviation. Based on current European targets, planes and ships alone will require roughly double the amount of advanced biofuels than can be sustainably sourced in Europe – in the most optimistic scenario – in 2050.
Lucien Mathieu, cars director at T&E, said: “The push for biofuels is absurd. Europeans can’t eat enough pork or fries to sustainably run even a fraction of Europe’s cars let alone its ships and planes. Why are the car and oil lobbies flogging non-solutions when we have a ready technology in electric cars? This is nothing but a delay tactic that will leave Europe uncompetitive in the global EV market.” (....)