EU renewable ethanol sets new greenhouse-gas reduction record

Production and use of renewable ethanol from ePURE members and other EU producers reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by an average of nearly 82% compared to fossil fuels in 2025, according to newly certified data.

This record-high sustainability score for renewable ethanol represents a 16-year trend of European renewable ethanol approaching carbon-neutrality.

It also confirms the importance of ethanol as a replacement for fossil fuel in the petrol and hybrid cars that Europeans continue to prefer.

“The EU’s need to reduce its dependence on foreign oil has never been more urgent, and these new audited figures confirm that renewable ethanol has an important role to play,” said Craig Winneker, acting secretary general of ePURE, the European renewable ethanol association.

“The data also show yet again that EU renewable ethanol production creates important co-products, including food, feed and biogenic CO₂ to replace fossil CO₂ in industrial applications. The tired old ‘food vs fuel’ myth is not just wrong, it’s counterproductive to achieving EU goals for climate change mitigation, energy independence, food security, and agricultural competitiveness.”

The high GHG saving performance of EU ethanol was accompanied by significant production of food and feed co-products (6.6 million tonnes of commercial product) and of captured biogenic CO2 (1.2 million tonnes) – more ways in which ethanol production contributes to EU food security and offsets fossil resources.

The 2025 findings were compiled from ePURE members and other EU producers and certified by auditing firm Copartner. ePURE’s membership includes 20 producing companies with around 50 refineries across the EU and UK, accounting for about 85% of EU renewable ethanol production.