Will European trade undermine the EU’s move to clean biofuels?
The EU is negotiating trade deals with Mercosur (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay), Indonesia, and soon Malaysia, These trade deals represent a risk for the EU’s sustainable transport plans. All mentioned countries are producers and exporters of crop-based biofuels, especially from palm and soybean oil that have higher overall emissions than fossil diesel. All ongoing negotiations include chapters on energy and raw materials.
Interested in this kind of news?
Receive them directly in your inbox. Delivered once a week.
One of the objectives of the planned trade agreements is to facilitate trade in these areas, which will reduce the cost of raw materials and biofuels originating from the abovementioned countries. At the same time the EU is committed to decarbonising the transport sector and to phasing out crop-based biofuels. There is a risk that these two approaches – the planned trade agreements and the EU’s goals – will be at odds with each other. This report recommends four trade policy approaches to ensure that trade does not contribute to the use of unsustainable crop-based biofuels.
Related Articles
View All
Charging infrastructure has far outpaced EV sales in all but one EU country – analysis
Only Malta falls short on the EU’s fleet-based target for public charging.
EU backs electrification to make Europe more secure
EU Commission identifies grids as a bottleneck for electrification, promising to standardise vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology
Are the EV tariffs working? Western carmakers shifted production to EU, but Chinese brands continue to grow – analysis
Imports of Chinese batteries, which face virtually no tariffs, increased seven fold