Science has again reaffirmed: ‘Food vs fuel’ is a fallacy, a misguided argument that has disconnected EU energy and climate policy from real-world conditions and helped maintain the dominance of oil.
A new expert study conducted by the Nova Institute confirms that diversification of crop uses is essential to a competitive and resilient agricultural sector, boosting food security, contributing to climate change mitigation and supporting biodiversity while producing bioenergy and bio-based materials.
The new report shows that ‘food, fuel and more’ should be the new motto guiding sound policymaking. With major legislative revisions looming, the time is now for decision-makers to understand how the diverse uses of biomass make farmers less vulnerable and more competitive as the EU market is more open to imports.
The study explains that encouraging farmers to produce foodstuffs for many uses is an economical way to set up an emergency food reserve in case of crisis. Covering lands with solar panels or non-food crops would not provide such flexibility.
Defossilizing the economy requires biomass. Limiting biomass to waste and residue is a recipe for failure for three reasons:
1) they are scarce resources;
2) they are too expensive;
3) non-EU competitors don’t operate under the same constraints.
European ethanol supports farmers’ revenue, food-crop production and food production
The study says that relying almost exclusively on waste and residues would require five to 20 times more land and would cost two to three times more than using agricultural raw materials.
The “food vs fuel’’ debate has led to decisions that have slowed down defossilization in road transport and will make it difficult to defossilize aviation and maritime. But the ongoing legislative work offers an opportunity to implement a win-win strategy that will genuinely bring economic prosperity to our green and sovereignty agendas.
European ethanol supports farmers’ revenue, food-crop production and food production. Large volumes of ethanol (both crop-based and second-generation) are produced in synergy with sugar and starch.
Ethanol production generates high protein animal feed co-products and biogenic CO2 that replaces fossil CO2 in beverage and industrial applications. Ethanol is supplied to multiple industries including pharmaceuticals, hospitals, beverages, perfumes, cosmetics and more.
With an average GHG emission reduction of 80% compared to gasoline, ethanol is one of the most available and competitive alternatives to oil in road transport. That’s why it’s so important for the CO2 for cars regulation to be technology-open and recognize bioethanol as a carbon-neutral fuel.
In the wider bioeconomy, ethanol is a molecule that can help the EU chemical industry respond to both an overreliance on imported molecules and a defossilization need
Ethanol can also be used to defossilize the aviation and maritime sectors. Changes in relevant regulations to end the dogmatic-based discrimination against first generation bioethanol would allow an Alcohol-to-Jet industry to emerge in the EU and encourage the promising ongoing trials of ethanol in shipping.
In the wider bioeconomy, ethanol is a molecule that can help the EU chemical industry respond to both an overreliance on imported molecules and a defossilization need. Already eight Member States have called on the European Commission to deliver an EU Critical Chemicals Act.
They stated that “bio-based glycerol and ethanol are probably the bio-based molecules with the largest volumes produced to date, as they have benefitted from the development of biofuels. …The technologies are largely available and have a final molecule cost close to their fossil-sourced counterparts”.
It's time to move beyond false arguments. When it comes to sustainable biofuels such as renewable ethanol, the EU needs a consistent plan that embraces the real-world synergies at play.
Read the Nova Institute study on the importance of biomass for European farmers
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