Commission adopts proposal to reduce carbon content of transport fuels
Tue 07 October 2014
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The European Commission has adopted new rules drawn up to reduce the carbon content of transport fuels. The rules oblige suppliers to reduce by 6% the life cycle greenhouse gas intensity of fuel and other energy sources supplied for use in road vehicles by 2020. The Directive also obliges suppliers to report information on the greenhouse gas intensity of the fuel they supply to authorities designated by the Member States.
The proposal establishes the low carbon fuel standard required by the Fuel Quality Directive and brings it into effect in European legislation.
The proposal also drops a mandatory requirement for oil sands oil to be labelled as unclean and highly polluting. The new plan requires refiners to report an average emissions value of the feedstock used in the products they produce and establishes the low carbon fuel standard required by the FQD and brings it into effect in Union legislation.
The fuels covered by the proposal are petrol, diesel, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG). Each of these fuel types will be assigned a default value based on emissions produced over the entire life-cycle. Henceforth, fuels suppliers must use these values when reporting the carbon intensity of their fuel supply to Member States to ensure a 6% reduction in their transport emissions in 2020.
“Finally the Commission can present this proposal to improve the climate impact of our transport fuels. It is no secret that our initial proposal could not go through due to resistance faced in some Member States,” the EU's Climate Action commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in a statement.
The proposal will be submitted to the European Council for a decision within two months, and to the European Parliament for scrutiny.
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