Commission proposes new fuels standards to reduce climate impacts
Fri 02 February 2007
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The European Commission has proposed the introduction of new standards for transport fuels that will reduce their contribution to climate change and local air pollution. The new standards are likely to include a requirement to cut greenhouse emissions arising during the production, transport and use phases of each fuel's 'life-cycle'.
The Commission's proposed revision to the EU Road Transport Fuels Directive will require suppliers to cut life-cycle carbon emissions from the fuels they market by 10 per cent by 2020. The Commission says that this measure has the potential to cut emissions by 500 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2020 - equivalent to the total combined emissions of Spain and Sweden today.
Fuel suppliers will be able to meet the objective by cutting emissions from processing the fuels or by promoting the use of lower carbon fuels such as biofuels and hydrogen. Existing EU legislation on biofuels and emissions trading is already encouraging fuel suppliers to reduce emissions.
ENDS reports that the Commission is also proposing that a new petrol blend will be established allowing higher content of the biofuel ethanol, and sulphur levels in diesel and gasoil will be cut to reduce emissions of particulates.
On a related theme, a recent report from Wood Mackenzie, a leading oil and energy consultancy (see link), concludes that within 15 years all of the world's extra oil supply is likely to come from hard-to-develop sources of energy such as Canada's oil sands and Venezuela's Orinoco tar belt; sources which will be more expensive and environmentally damaging to extract.
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