Neste urges EU to ease advanced biofuel feedstock rules amid energy security pressure
Rising fossil fuel prices linked to war are reviving interest in biofuels across Europe as governments look for ways to strengthen energy security and contain energy costs. In that context, Finland's Neste is calling on the European Commission to relax certification restrictions on feedstocks for advanced biofuels that it says do not threaten food supplies or forests.
Highlights
- Neste urges the EU to revise certification rules restricting second-generation biofuel feedstocks like intermediate crops, citing missed opportunities for energy security.
- Neste estimates up to 27 million tons of intermediate crop feedstock could be utilized in Europe but is currently blocked by existing certification constraints.
- The European Commission's restrictions on biofuel feedstocks aim to address emissions, forest loss, and food inflation, but limit scalability for advanced biofuels.
Policy push on advanced crop feedstocks
As reported by Reuters, Neste said current EU certification rules are preventing wider use of second-generation biofuel feedstocks such as intermediate or cover crops, including canola grown between harvests or on degraded land. The company argues these materials should be treated differently from conventional crop-based biofuels because they do not carry the same risks for food markets or deforestation.The European Commission limits the amount of biofuel feedstocks that can be grown in Europe because of longstanding concerns over emissions, forest loss and food inflation. Speaking at the Argus Biofuels Europe conference in London, Samuel Maubanc, Neste's EMEA head of Public and Regulatory Affairs, said Europe could have access to as much as 27 million tons from these intermediate crops, but that existing certification rules are disqualifying much of that potential.
The Commission was not immediately available to comment.
In our earlier article on Mario Draghi’s warning about Europe’s policy dilemma, we explained how fighting inflation and stabilizing debt can unintentionally squeeze the long-term investment needed to lift productivity and resilience. He argued central banks should keep rates only as high as necessary for price stability, while the EU complements monetary policy with market integration and targeted industrial measures to support strategic investment.
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