Brussels, 08/10/2014 (Agence Europe) - Environmentalist NGOs are disappointed by European Commission plans, presented on Tuesday 7 October, to help suppliers of transport fuel in Europe comply with Directive 2009/30/EC on fuel quality which requires them to reduce the carbon intensity of the said fuel by 6%. Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) is highly critical that this attempt to regulate imports of transport fuel into Europe, to protect the climate, does not penalise the most polluting of fuels (see EUROPE 11171).
In the view of FoEE, it is under strong pressure from the oil industry and the Canadian and US governments that the Commission has dismantled its initial proposal of 2011 to make it less attractive to import oil from tar sands into Europe. Even though the new measures recognise the high emissions of some fuels, especially tar sands, the implementing proposal does not set out any measures to discourage their import, regrets the NGO. It puts this change of position down to the free-trade negotiations that have since been opened with the United States and Canada.
“The Commission has recognised the highly polluting nature of tar sands but is going to let this climate killer be used by European oil companies with no penalty at all. The Commission has clearly seen the problem but - under heavy pressure from the oil industry and the Canadian and US government - chosen not to act on it”, said Colin Roche, extractives campaigner with Friends of the Earth Europe.
FoEE says that fuel suppliers in the EU are not incentivised to use less tar sands derived fuel since tar sands derived oil is treated the same as conventional oil when companies report how they are meeting the emissions reduction target. This is despite a projected influx of tar sands equivalent to adding an extra six million cars to Europe's roads by 2020, states the NGO. Tar sands oil, which mainly comes from Canada, is the most harmful fuel in large scale commercial production today, responsible for three to five times more climate changing emissions than conventional fossil fuels. The first delivery of Canadian tar sands oil to Europe arrived in June (see EUROPE 11090) and a shipment of Canadian heavy crude, likely to contain tar sands, is due to arrive in Italy, FoEE says. (AN)