Results of the European biofuels policy

In the frame of the European Directive 2003/30/EC, Member states are required to provide the Commission (at the latest by 1st July every year, starting in 2004) with a report showing:

• the measures taken to promote the use of biofuels or other renewable fuels to replace diesel or petrol for transport;
• the national resources allocated to the production of biomass for energy uses other than transport;
• the total sales of transport fuel and the share of biofuels, pure or blended, and other renewable fuels placed on the market for the preceding year.

All the reports submitted to the Commission so far [1] are available on the Commission's website. In these reports, Member States may indicate the national objectives for the introduction of biofuels over the period 2009-2020. On 10 January 2007, the Commission submitted a progress report on the use of biofuels in EU Member States to the Council and the European Parliament [2]. Based on these documents, the table below shows the results of the EU's biofuels promotion policy over the period 2003-2008 and the national targets for 2009-2010, 2015 and 2020, according to the availability of data.

The Member States showing the best results in 2008 were Germany, France, Austria, Lithuania, Sweden, and the Netherlands. The share of biofuels in these countries (on the basis of energy content) amount to 5.84%, 5.71%, 5.48%, 4.30%, 3.50% and 3.26% of all gasoline and diesel for transport purposes placed on the market. The average for the EU-27 amounted to 2.62% in 2008 (calculated in proportion to the respective fuel consumption of Member States).

Table : Member states results and objectives regarding the European biofuels policy

The figure below shows the increase in biodiesel and bioethanol consumption in the EU-27 from 1992 to 2007. Values are given in PJ/year and and allow comparing the consumption of biofuels and conventional fuels.

Figure : Evolution of biodiesel and bioethanol consumption (in PJ/yr) in the UE-27 from 1992 to 2008

If the consumption of fuel-ethanol has increased substantially in the past ten years, its growth rate was however significantly lower than that of biodiesel consumption. In terms of energy, the consumption of biodiesel is almost 5 times higher than that of bioethanol in 2008. Compared with the consumption of total road transport fuels the same year (i.e almost 13'000 PJ), biofuels represent only 2.62% (see table above), which is still well below the EU's target for 2010 (i.e. 5.75% of all gasoline and diesel for transport purposes placed on the market, as calculated on the basis of energy content).