Promoting citizen-orientated climate protection in transport

On the occasion of the new edition of the brochure "Good Reasons for Biofuels", the Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP) determines that the importance of biofuels as a tool for decarbonising the transport sector is increasing worldwide. The most well-known example is Brazil, with a steadily growing production of bioethanol and also of biodiesel. In the European Union, biofuel policy has evolved from a control instrument for agricultural surpluses in the early 1990s to a measure embedded in European and national energy and climate protection policies. The UFOP criticises that these relationships are not sufficiently communicated to the consumers. With the brochure, the association wants to contribute to the fact that consumers want to, rather than have to, make a contribution to climate protection.

UFOP has updated its consumer information with this objective in mind. The brochure presents the most important aspects of the need to further promote biofuels on 24 pages. The agricultural market supply and the accompanying food or fuel discussion are still a central aspect. It is also shown that with a proper biofuels policy specifically, trends for sustainability requirements can be set worldwide. The EU biofuels policy is an international leader in legal requirements and in the certification of sustainability as well as in the definition of minimum greenhouse gas savings as a precondition for market access. This approach could also be applied to the use of renewable raw materials within the framework of the so-called bio-economic strategy. From the point of view of UFOP, this could strengthen regional value creation.

In the future, agriculture will also have to deal with a statutory obligation to protect the climate. The brochure provides information on the possibilities of using biofuels in agricultural machinery and thereby contributing to climate protection. Utilisation of this potential has only just begun.

The UFOP information also properly classifies the available biomass potential. Biofuels are therefore only part of a solution, but this solution is already feasible today. This is visible to anyone when refuelling. A new labelling requirement stipulates that the maximum admixture proportion of biofuels at public gas stations must be made visible by means of a sign. Measured by EU fuel consumption of around 200 million tonnes of diesel and 80 million tonnes of petrol, all options, from e-mobility to synthetic fuels from renewable sources, are needed to meet the ambitious time frames of national and international climate protection targets. The energy and power requirements on and off the road (construction sites, agriculture and forestry) can only be covered by renewable and sustainable energy sources together with the use of biofuels from agricultural commodities.

The brochure is available for download at https://www.ufop.de/index.php/download_file/7602/