Speaking at the Stakeholder Conference on A sustainable bioenergy policy for the period after 2020, Chairman of Copa & Cogeca bioenergy working party Dietrich Klein said “Advanced biofuels have an additional and growing role to play by 2030. They improve the competitiveness of arable crops by creating additional market outlets for crops”.
“Biofuels not only provide the EU with environmentally-friendly transport fuels but they also boost animal feed supplies as only a fraction of rapeseed or wheat is used to produce biodiesel or bioethanol. The rest is a protein-rich by-product used for animal feed. For instance, for every litre of bioethanol produced, 1 to 1.2 kg of protein feed and 60 % of rapeseed grain is turned into meal. These are the most efficient ways worldwide to produce vegetable protein for feed”, explained Klein. ”Advanced biofuels also create an additional source of incomes for farmers and the biofuels industry is a key driver for growth and jobs in EU rural areas. They are also an important part of the bioeconomy”, added Klein.
In order to maximize their potential, key conditions and targets need to be met, including:
• An additional target for advanced biofuels of at least 3.5%
• Stable and political legal framework conditions with unlimited access for arable crops to all market outlets
• Improved support for research, technical demonstration of advanced biofuels
• Regulation to provide fair competition in fuel markets and technology specific incentives for advanced biofuels
• Secure, fair and long term stable framework conditions for European Agriculture
• Legally binding targets in Fuel quality directive (FQD) and renewable energy directive (RED)
• Greater consistency between various policy areas: climate and energy, circular economy, bioeconomy, agriculture
• Better promotion of heating and cooling for biomass
• Implementation of more than 6% Green House Gas Fuel quality directive (FQD) reduction targets in all Member States from 2020
• All renewable energy resources in transport must be based on cross compliance criteria under the CAP and the additional sustainability criteria for biofuels
