LPG warns on 2035 combustion engine cut

Industry fears a ban on the internal combustion engine would stop the adoption of lower-carbon alternative fuels, writes Dafydd ab Iago

The LPG industry is concerned that the European Parliament will next month confirm a vote to effectively phase out the internal combustion engine from 2035, preventing bio-LPG from replacing traditional LPG.

The parliament is expected to vote in early June on whether to confirm a position taken by the environment committee to oblige EU carmakers to reduce average fleet tailpipe emissions by 100pc by 2035 compared with 2021.

"The 100pc cut... effectively limits consumer choice to electric vehicles only," LPG association Liquid Gas Europe (LGE) general manager Ewa Abramiuk-Lete says. "It prevents consumers from using established and affordable emissions-reducing alternative technologies such as LPG and, increasingly, renewable liquid gases." The association is calling for a neutral mixed technology approach.

A proposed EU methodology on calculating CO2 emissions from next year only takes into account exhaust rather than full life-cycle emissions from cars, vans and fuels, and if adopted into law could stop bio-LPG or renewable dimethyl ether from being adopted, the LGE says. Netherlands-based LPG distributor SHV Energy recently said it increased sales of bio-LPG by 8pc to 64,000t in 2021.

LPG will also be affected by the parliament's vote next month on whether, or how and when, to include road transport fuels in the EU's emissions trading system (ETS). Draft amendments indicate a degree of cross-party support exempting private consumers from the ETS until January 2029, and then only "if the conditions are right". But fuel suppliers for commercial use could be obliged to purchase corresponding allowances under the new parallel ETS for road transport and building fuels from 2025, rather than 2026 as proposed last July by the commission.