EU climate protection and resource conservation policies not to include biofuels in future?!

UFOP calls for an approach to biofuel policies that is open towards competition and technology

Berlin, 31 March 2014. The Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e.V. (UFOP) sees a significant need for research and development in the case of biofuels of the second and third generation. As a result, both these and biofuels from waste oils and animal fats would be unable to fill the supply gap resulting from 2020 onwards, if the subsidising of conventional biofuels is to be phased out, as proposed by the EU Commission. The UFOP calls for an active biofuel policy to be continued after 2020 in the form of a subsidy independent of raw materials. Amid this environment, it is necessary to establish framework conditions and spur incentives for a development strategy open to technology and competition as a basis for a sustainably oriented European biofuel policy.

In its statement, the UFOP calls for the success that has meanwhile been achieved with biofuels of the first generation in the area of climate protection and resource conservation within the transport sector. As the sole renewable energy source included in the mobility sector so far, it has only been possible to attain market shares with biodiesel and bioethanol up to the present. All other alternatives, be they biofuels from residual and waste materials or electromobility, must be measured in terms of this success. The association expects neither process engineering preconditions nor a corresponding investment readiness to be in place by 2020, in order to replace the volumes of biofuels of the first generation by biofuels of the second or third generation. On the contrary, the UFOP fears that the EU-approved certification systems that have meanwhile been established in the European Union and non-member states such as Argentina, Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia with tremendous hard work will encounter economic difficulties owing to the lack of certification documents. The association reiterates the exemplary function played by the first generation of biofuels in the development of these systems which, meanwhile, are also being discussed in regard to the material utilisation of renewable raw materials and which are gaining acceptance in corresponding certification concepts.
The UFOP therefore appeals to national and European decision-makers to retain a separate subordinate target with the aim of promoting competition open to raw materials and technology after 2020 as well.

Please find the position paper here.