Why rewarding renewable fuels under the truck CO2 regulation would be a bad idea

(EurActiv, 7 Nov 2018) It may sound like a good thing to reward advanced fuels. But doing it under the CO2 standards for heavy duty vehicles (HDVs) would not achieve this goal and would only end up weakening EU fuel efficiency standards, says Cristina Mestre.

Cristina Mestre is climate and biofuels officer at sustainable transport group Transport & Environment (T&E).

The European Commission made its proposal in to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from heavy duty vehicles (HDVs) such as trucks and buses in mid-May. The file is currently being debated by the European Parliament and Council, and MEPs are set to vote on it next week. It’s an important piece of legislation: HDVs account for 26% of road transport emissions in the EU and, as leading companies point out, these emissions can cost-effectively be reduced by at least 20% with technologies that are available today or will soon be.

There are good elements in the work of the Parliament, but green groups are concerned about a huge lobby push by the gas, oil, biofuel and truck industry to include a so-called ‘Carbon Correction Factor’ (CCF) for trucks and buses running on biofuels. Supporters of a CCF claim that efforts to promote and use renewable fuels, such as advanced biofuels, should be incentivised under the CO2 standards for HDVs.

There are different CCF proposals but essentially it means that if a truck is sold or registered in a member state with a high share of renewable advanced fuels, a CCF will be applied giving a better CO2 performance to that vehicle, and thus to the manufacturer, resulting in a lower (read: easier) CO2 target for 2025 and 2030.

It may sound like a good thing to reward advanced fuels – and we support some incentives for sustainable advanced fuels. But doing it under the CO2 standards for HDVs would not achieve this goal and would only end up weakening the fuel efficiency standards. There are three reasons for that.

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EurActiv, 7 Nov 2018: Why rewarding renewable fuels under the truck CO2 regulation would be a bad idea