Palm oil still dominant biofuel feedstock in 2021 quota year

The Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP) expects the share of palm oil to halve in the completed quota year 2022. Total sales are estimated at about 2.5 million tonnes. This expectation is based on the statutory limit in Germany of 0.9 % of final energy consumption in transport for offsetting against the GHG quota obligation. From the UFOP’s point of view, it is primarily rapeseed oil from European cultivation that will have to close the demand gap. This applies in particular to the period from 2023 to 2030. Since 1 January 2023, palm oil-based biofuels have been excluded from offsetting, well ahead of the phase-out by 2030 prescribed by EU law. Other EU member states (France, Sweden, Belgium, Austria) have already implemented this exclusion.

The funding union underlines the important bridging function of sustainably certified biofuels from cultivated biomass as a noticeable contribution to climate protection in transport. At the same time, it calls for a national fuel strategy until the share of renewable power finally takes the ramp-up desired by policymakers as a contribution to the decarbonisation of the transport sector. In view of the difficult supply situation for natural gas and oil on the one hand and the ambitious climate protection targets on the other, all sustainably certified options must be used in the best possible way. This applies in particular to the use of biofuels in heavy goods transport. Here the laws of physics and the costs of electrification set the "guard rails" that must be taken into account with a view to the climate protection targets under the Climate Protection Act.

At the same time, the UFOP emphasises the limits of availability for the provision of biofuels as a result of the naturally given crop rotation restrictions imposed by the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. In this respect, the priority is to optimally exploit the available potential, emphasises the UFOP with reference to the coordination of a National Biomass Strategy (NABIS), which will begin in the spring.

These and other topics will be discussed at the 20th International Conference on Renewable Mobility – Fuels of the Future 2023. This major pan-European, cross-sectoral flagship event will take place on 23/24 January 2023 in the City Cube in Berlin. More than 400 participants are already registered. Further information at: https://www.kraftstoffe-der-zukunft.com/….