New year, same resolution – A more coherent EU approach to biofuels

David Carpintero, the director general of ePURE, the European renewable ethanol association, looks at the direction of biofuels policy for the year ahead. The last few years of EU climate and energy policy have demonstrated more than ever that Europe needs a new way to think about biofuels and their contribution to transport de-fossilisation.
As the EU enters a new political cycle – European Parliament elections and a new Commission in 2024 – the European renewable ethanol industry will be working along with a wide range of stakeholders in the biofuels and food and feed value chains to help build awareness of the strategic importance renewable ethanol production.
Policy direction
A recent report from the European Court of Auditors described a “lack of policy predictability” that has increased the risks for private investments and reduced the attractiveness of the sector.
This has made it harder for the EU to achieve its ambitions for transport decarbonisation – an area in which failure is not an option, but in which success has been very hard to come by.
This lack of coherence has been demonstrated most recently in...