7 December 2018 | News
A step forward in transport decarbonization – more actions needed
The new EU Renewable Energy Directive (REDII) has been agreed by the EU institutions. The new directive increases the use of renewable energy to 32% in 2030 and the share of renewable energy used in transportation to 14% in Europe. New element in REDII is a mandatory target for advanced biofuels starting from 2022.
NEOT welcomes this step towards transport decarbonization after years of regulatory uncertainty but calls for broader perspective to climate and energy policy.
“The message in the latest IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change) Special Report was very clear; cutting emissions is not enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. All available efforts are needed to tackle this tremendous challenge. The importance of taking full potential of carbon sinks and carbon capture into use was emphasized in the IPCC Report but these negative emissions are currently missing from the EU policy framework. In other words, their usage is not incentivized at all,” says Timo Huhtisaari, Sustainability Director, NEOT.
Due to the current political EU political framework the monetary value of a ton of CO2 is also different in different sectors.
“In the nature, the impact of a ton of CO2 is the same regardless of how it has been produced or by who. Why its monetary value is different for operators in different sectors? This imbalance causes currently a situation where some solutions to curb climate change are lost to politics, and we cannot afford that” says Huhtisaari.
New EU Comission will be elected in 2019 and NEOT encourages the new Comission to adapt a more holistic view in EU policy for achieving the needed CO2 reductions. This should happen by enabling flexibilities in reduction methods between all emission sectors; from LULUCF sector to ETS sector and Effort sharing targets.
