Recent Renewables Required Reading: What Can You Skip, What d’ya Gotta Read?

#3 The European Commission’s new Clean Energy Package proposes to phase out, or significantly reduce, the use of conventional biofuels in Europe.

The issue: 

In the proposed Renewable Energy Directive for the period post-2020, the European Commission proposed to reduce the maximum contribution of conventional biofuels, such as ethanol made from corn, wheat and sugar beet, to the EU 2030 renewable target – from a maximum of 7% of transport fuels in 2021 to 3.8% in 2030. The Commission also proposed a binding blending obligation of 6.8 % to promote other ‘low emissions fuels’ such as renewable electricity and advanced biofuels used in transport.

The Bottom Line: 

Sorry, this one you have to pay attention to.

Why We’re Talking About it:

As Novozymes Vice-President for Biorefining Thomas Schrøder summed it up perfectly: “The proposed gradual phase out of all conventional biofuels would only increase the share of fossil fuels in transport and add GHG emissions. By 2020, the aim was to have 10% renewables in transport, by 2030, the ambition is lowered to 6.8%. The European Commission failed to reflect in its proposal the latest science and evidence that demonstrate the very high sustainability profile of a series of conventional biofuels. For example, conventional ethanol effectively reduces GHG emissions today (by 64% on average compared to petrol) even when indirect impacts are accounted for. They have a legitimate role to play in the EU energy mix.”

Schrøder adds: “As far as advanced biofuels are concerned, the proposal to have a specific mandate of minimum 3.6% by 2030 is welcomed…However, advanced biofuels are not meant to replace perfectly sustainable conventional biofuels; they are meant to replace an increasing share of fossil fuels and reduce more GHG emissions.”

Why You Can’t Safely Ignore: 

The proposal is likely to make it’s way into the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive, and it’s not going to be a simple case of switching all the stranded ethanol production over to advanced biofuels. This is not an attack on ethanol, it’s an attack on feedstock. Or, rather the perception of scarcity implicit in the “food vs fuel” debate. EU regulators hope to secure food for Europeans by phasing out the conversion of grains and oils to fuels. Yet, what happens when supply outstrips demand? Commodity prices fall, and production exits the market, reducing the very grains and oil supply that the new directive is supposed to secure.

The fashionable beliefs in the EU about the nature of agricultural commodity markets, remind us of the European idea, fashionable in the 1920s, that you could end the catastrophe of war through unilateral disarmament. Instead, European democracies were simply unprepared for the military crises of the late 1930s and Europe experienced its greatest catastrophe since the 30 Years War and the Black Death as a result. Never underestimate the EU Commission’s appetite for policies that could plunge the region into a food and emissions crisis, while proclaiming all the while its interest in the opposite result.