Briefing

How to make Europe’s green fuels law truly green

May 27, 2021

The Renewable Energy Directive (RED) is about to be reviewed by the European Commission, as part of the ‘Fit for 55’ package planned for release in July. Until now, the RED has been mostly a tool used to incentivise biofuels blending, which created a heavy reliance on crop biofuels with negative environmental, social and climate impacts.

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Long-term decarbonisation scenarios now show that renewable electricity, and renewable hydrogen and synthetic fuels for some applications, will be the necessary fuels to reach full transport decarbonisation by 2050. The RED framework for transport fuels should adapt to this new reality and ensure the right incentives and safeguards are in place for these fuels, while limiting further the role of fuels from the combustion engine age – especially crop biofuels. This briefing highlights T&E’s main recommendations for the review of the RED.

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