sions.
The one-sentence Commission proposal was buried inside a much bigger series of "white paper" proposals that would slash overall European Union GHG emissions 40% by 2030 and also impose a 27% "binding target" for renewable energy outside of transport fuels.
The European Biodiesel Board has similarly complained about the lack of any transport-fuels GHG standard in the Commission proposals (see DFN on 02/03/2014).
According to the new Commission proposal, "the Commission does not think it appropriate to establish new targets for renewable energy or the GHG intensity of fuels used in the transport sector or any other sub-sector after 2020."
According to T&E - an umbrella organization for numerous "green" groups in Europe - the net impact of this proposal means that "the Commission wants to put an end to all legislation regarding the climate impact of transport fuels."
"We have never made it a secret that we severely disliked the 10% renewable energy target for transport in EU legislation," according to T&E.
"Rather unsurprisingly, most of the 10% will be filled with [food-crop-derived] biodiesel, which has been shown to have higher [GHG] emissions than normal diesel, so we won't shed many tears over its demise.
"But also scrapping the 6% fuel decarbonization target is throwing away a precious baby with the dirty bathwater. This 'quality over quantity' tool can in the longer run clean up Europe's transport fuels - by decreasing reliance on ultra-dirty fossil fuels such as unconventional oil, and by promoting better biofuels.
"So why did the Commission do this? Simple: in the hope of fewer headaches. The Commission has found cleaning up biofuels and classifying North American highcarbon oil as, indeed, high-carbon, politically a bit difficult - especially now that Europe really wants to agree freetrade deals with Canada and the U.S.
"The problem is that this medicine might take away some headache symptoms, but would surely exacerbate its root cause: it makes the struggle to find a cost-effective path out of our energy and climate crisis even harder. Why? Because the Commission is essentially saying: whatever that path towards a solution is, cleaner transport fuels will not be part of it.
"So it mies out one vitally important avenue for emissions reductions. And if you do that, the cost of your climate policy will go up, and we Europeans will pay for that."
"The Commission is using the climate and energy package as an excuse to quietly scrap the FQD [fuelquality directive] - the best EU law aimed at lowering emissions from transport fuel," added Nusa Urbancic, T&E policy manager for clean fuels. "This [Commission proposal] is good news for oil companies and Alberta, with its high-carbon tar sands, but bad news for Europe in our move towards a more sustainable transport system. We call on EU member states to reverse this decision when they discuss it at the Environment Council in March."
Parliament, EU Member-State Debates
"The White Paper from the European Commission on climate and energy policies for 2030 is only a first step," T&E policy officer Laura Buffet told Hart Energy on February 3.
"The decision-making process will continue in the European Parliament and Member States at least until 2015. This means that it is still possible that the fuelquality directive, the best EU law for regulating transport emissions, continues after 2020."
"The 6% decarbonization target in 2020 is still in place and we are waiting to have a robust proposal for implementing the FQD up to 2020. This would discourage high-carbon fuels from entering the EU.
"The transport sector will become the biggest source of GHG emissions in the EU after 2020. In this context, the need to monitor and regulate emissions from transport fuels is even more crucial after 2020," she added.