German government to remove 1st gen biofuels by 2025

In Germany, Argus Media reports that the planned introduction of multipliers for electricity and hydrogen in a draft law for the use of renewables in transport published by the German environment ministry (BMU) will remove first generation biofuels from the market by 2025.

The German government outlined its plans to toughen the country’s biofuels legislation in a draft law at the end of September, which aims to implement the EU’s revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED II). It proposes lowering the cap of the energy share of crop-based biofuels to 2.7pc by 2026 from 6.5pc in 2020, and wants to lift Germany’s domestic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction obligation to 7.25pc by 2026. It also plans to introduce multipliers for hydrogen and electricity used in transport with the GHG savings generated by selling electricity to charge electric vehicles to be counted four-fold towards the country’s GHG emissions reduction quota.

The government’s plans will start a process of displacement at the expense of established sustainable biofuels that are indispensable for climate protection as the introduction of multipliers will disadvantage crop and even waste-based biofuels, the industry alliance said.