RED II dominates agenda at EU Biofuels Seminar

Compared to a year ago macroeconomic outlook globally has significantly improved, but the political risks have increased, an economics expert said at the S&P Global Platts EU Biofuels Seminar.

Jean-Michel Six, managing director and chief European economist at S & P Global Rating, made the statement during his presentation entitled ‘Global macroeconomics and oil fundamentals’ in Geneva, Switzerland on 26 April.

Coming early in the day, it was a line which would go on to resonate throughout the conference.

Six was referring to political issues such as Brexit and the election of Donald Trump, but for many of the attendees and speakers at the conference, proposed revisions to the European Commission’s Renewable Energy Directive (dubbed RED II), as well as the long -term future of biofuels, were seen as the biggest political questions.

Ruta Baltause, a policy officer at the European Commission, delivered the EU perspective, explaining the reasoning behind proposed comprehensive revisions of the RED which include gradual phase out of conventional crop-based biofuels, but also stressing that biofuels remain a part of policy on energy security.

Craig Winneker, director of communications at ePure, who gave a presentation on the perspective of first generation biofuels, described a “dramatic time for the industry”, claiming that the proposed Renewable Energy Directive “removes one of the best tools the EU has for reducing greenhouse gases.”

‘Particularly long and particularly nasty’

Angel Alvarez Alberdi, secretary general of the European Waste-to-Advanced Biofuels Association (ewaba), questioned RED II’s proposed gradually decreasing caps on crop-based biofuels, referring to the process as “particularly long and particularly nasty.” He also voiced concerns over the definitions of advanced biofuels set to be included in the directive.

Gabriele Walli, department manager of biofuels supply at OMV Downstream, described uncertainties in energy policy making it difficult for oil companies to create long-term targets and plans until 2030. She also touched on another theme which came up again and again throughout the seminar – that biofuels are likely to stay a part of the fuel market for the foreseeable future. She claimed that ethanol and biodiesel are still the most realistic options for meeting volumetric targets.

As Aaron Berry, head of biofuel strategy at Department for Transport UK, stressed in his presentation, even if the switch to producing only electric cars happened today, liquid fuels for cars would remain in the market for decades during the transition, meaning biofuels still have an important role to play. It was a sentiment echoed in regards to the aviation and manufacturing industries, in a panel on advanced biofuels involving Robert Boyd form International Air Transport, Alysia Tofflemire from Boeing and Per Sune Koustrup from Nordic Green, among others.

This article was written by Daryl Worthington, Assistant Editor at Biofuels International