Germany suggests phase out of crop biofuels by 2030

Germany's environment ministry is working on a proposal to phase out the use of biofuels produced from food and feed crops by 2030.

This comes at a time of rising food costs and waning supply of agricultural products caused by disruption of exports from main suppliers Ukraine and Russia.

A working paper released by the ministry suggests lowering the use of crop-based biofuels to comply with Germany's greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction quota to 2.5pc in 2023, from 4.4pc this year. The cap would then fall to 2.3pc in 2024, to 2.1pc in 2025, to 1.9pc in 2026-27, to 1.2pc in 2028-29 and then to zero the following year.

To compensate, the working paper suggests increasing the multiplier for electricity used to charge e-cars to four, from three currently, and the multiplier for the use of green hydrogen and PtX-fuels to three, from two. The cap for waste-based biodiesel produced from used cooking oils (Uco) and animal fats could be slightly lifted, but no numbers were given. It also proposes extending the use of upstream emission reduction (UER) projects to 2028, from the current phase-out date of after 2026.

The country's GHG quota would need a slight downward adjustment as well for the compliance years 2023 to 2026, the ministry's working group said.

The suggestions were criticised by German biofuels association VDB, which said a reduction of the proportion of biofuels is unnecessary because ethanol producers mostly use grain that is unsuitable for the food sector, and biodiesel producers have already cut back their production in favor of food production.

"The draft… is inflexible and unsuitable for addressing any problems with the availability of feedstocks," VDB managing director Elmar Baumann said.

By Sophie Barthel