Council of the European Union unable to reach a consensus on updating biofuel legislation

News

The EU's energy ministers proved unable to reach a consensus on the reform of the EU's biofuel directives at their meeting held on 12 December. As a result, it is likely that the reform will now only be completed after elections to the European Parliament are held in May next year.

Although this will result in continued uncertainty around the nature of the reform, Neste Oil is satisfied that member states have decided to review their position. The proposal put forward by Lithuania, which currently holds the Council's presidency, would not have created sufficiently strong incentives for using waste and residues as biofuel inputs, and would have strictly limited the number of raw materials for which members states could have introduced special quotas and made supplementing the list virtually impossible. As a result, the proposal would not have made use of the major greenhouse gas reduction potential offered by using waste and residues for producing biofuel.

Biofuel refined from waste and residues can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 90% compared to fossil fuels. Giving greater priority to using these materials for other purposes than biofuel conflicts with the goals of the directive and the EU's climate policy.

Neste Oil has steadily extended its feedstock base in recent years, and increased the amount of waste and residues that it uses to produce renewable diesel significantly. Waste and residue-based raw materials currently account for approximately 50% of the company’s renewable inputs today, and the two NExBTL renewable diesel units at Porvoo have used solely waste and residues as their feedstock for some time.

Further information:

Ilkka Räsänen, Director, Public Affairs, tel. +358 (0)50 458 5123