The European Commission is scheduled to announce its “Fit for 55 package” on July 14, which is expected to outline changes to the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) and provide guidelines for renewable energy sources, especially sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
In October last year, the Commission stated that the European Green Deal would focus efforts to meet its new target for reducing emissions by at least 55% by 2030. As well as emissions trading changes, the “Fit for 55” package will also include renewable energy and energy taxation. The Commission promised back in October that the package will include proposals for a “carbon border adjustment mechanism to help motivate foreign producers and EU importers to reduce their carbon emissions”. Media reports circulating this week also note that this package will include obliging fuel suppliers to blend an increasingly high level of sustainable aviation fuels into existing jet fuel sold at EU airports and will also encourage the use of low-carbon fuels, with cleaner fuels to benefit from preferential treatment under the proposed new energy taxation framework.
Meanwhile, a report out today from the Energy Transmission Commission (ETC) – a consortium of businesses including: ArcelorMittal, Bank of America, BP, Development Research Center of the State Council of China, EBRD, Heathrow, HSBC, Iberdrola, Ørsted, Tata Group, Volvo Group and the World Resources Institute among others – warns that demand for bioresources such as SAFs would likely “exceed sustainable supply” and that aviation fuels and building materials should be prioritised for their use.
The report, Bioresources Within a Net-Zero Emissions Economy: Making a Sustainable Approach Possible, makes plain that, while bioresources are in principle renewable, not all forms of biomass use are beneficial from an environmental perspective: not all biomass is ‘good’ biomass. To be sustainable, biomass production should have low lifecycle GHG emissions. Its production should take into account the ‘opportunity cost’ related to carbon that could be sequestered without intervention, and must not compete with use of land for food production, trigger any land use change that could release carbon stocks into the atmosphere, and should not negatively impact biodiversity and ecosystem health.
As countries and companies endeavour to reduce their GHG emissions, the use of biomass as an alternative lower-carbon fuel has grown dramatically due to its easy substitution as a “drop-in” substitute for fossil fuels for industrial combustion and feedstock purposes. Many sectors and applications across the mobility, industry and buildings sectors currently plan to use biomass as a key decarbonisation route. But the report sets out that potential demands far exceed sustainable supply, which left unchecked, would heighten the risks of unsustainable management of the bio resource, including deforestation, biodiversity loss and soil depletion.
The ETC calls on industry to develop rapidly alternative zero-carbon solutions, such as clean electrification or hydrogen, in order to lessen the need for bio-based solutions.
Adair Turner, Chair of the Energy Transitions Commission, said: “Biomass can make a really valuable contribution to the world's decarbonisation. But truly sustainable biomass is limited in volume; so its use must be restricted to priority sectors where alternative decarbonisation options don't exist. The good news is that clean electrification and hydrogen often provide a cheaper solution. The challenge for policymakers is to develop those alternatives fast, while supporting targeted use of biomass where it is most needed – in materials, aviation and for carbon removals – with a constant attention to ensuring supply of biomass is truly sustainable."
The ETC encourages a prioritisation of biomass for use in a few sectors where there is limited to no alternative. Aviation is the one industry where biofuels could play a major role in the next decades as synthetic fuels made from power-to-liquids may not reach cost-competitiveness and scale fast enough to meet the needs of the sector
Click here to read the full Bioresources Within a Net-Zero Emissions Economy: Making a Sustainable Approach Possible report.