Ahead of the revision of CO2 standards for cars, vans and heavy vehicles in 2021, IRU, representing the commercial road transport industry, together with a coalition of European automotive, fuel and energy organisations and companies, has written to the European Commission calling for the recognition of carbon neutral fuels in EU CO2 legislation.
From a commercial perspective, including taxi, bus, coach and truck operators, cutting CO2 emissions only at the tailpipe, which is the EU’s current strategy, is not a comprehensive or effective way to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and will have no effect before 2030.
The joint letter calls for the introduction of a credit system, similar to the one in place for battery electric passenger cars, enabling vehicle manufacturers to offset their CO2 emissions by producing vehicles that can run on low and zero carbon fuels.
This will require:
- Recognition that low carbon and renewable fuels, both liquid and gaseous, play a key role in energy transition.
- Incentives for the greater integration of renewable fuels from the waste management sector into the fuel mix.
- Policies which enable commercial road transport operators to implement feasible and cost efficient solutions, including combustion engines that run on renewable and low carbon fuels, to be able to make an effective contribution to the full decarbonisation of mobility and logistics chains.1