In Belgium, inserting a biofuels loophole in the EU 2035 cars law could see a huge spike in demand for biofuels from waste feedstocks like animal fats, used cooking oil and palm oil by-products, new Transport and Environment analysis finds. A car running on animal fats, for example, would require the equivalent of 120 pigs a year. This additional demand could lead to cars, planes and ships consuming two to nine times more advanced biofuels than can be sustainably sourced in the future.
The EU is under pressure from the fuels and cars industries to allow new combustion engines running on biofuels to be sold after its 2035 deadline for zero-emission cars. This loophole, which is also supported by the Italian government, would see cars gobble up the very limited supplies of sustainable, advanced biofuels and make it more difficult to green hard-to-decarbonise sectors like aviation. Based on current European targets, planes and ships alone will require roughly double the amount of advanced biofuels than can be sustainably sourced in Europe – in the most optimistic scenario – in 2050.
