Brussels, 04/12/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 4 December, a global coalition of five associations representing the biofuels industry and the industrial biotechnology sectors, including the European renewable ethanol association ePure, called on world leaders meeting at the UN climate change conference (COP 21) in Paris to support a global commitment to replace at least 15% of the world's total oil use in transport with sustainable biofuels by 2030, with a significant presence of advanced biofuels.
The coalition, which includes the US Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and its Canadian equivalent (CRFA), as well as the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) and the American Biotechnology Industry Association (BIO), represents over 330 companies responsible for 90% of the world's biofuels production.
Globally, CO2 emissions from the transport sector have increased to 14% of total greenhouse gas emissions, a figure that could double by 2050, according to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the coalition states. It says “the need for preventative policy measures by world leaders is clear and urgent”. According to the IPCC, transport's growing emissions could be cut by 15-40% through 'aggressive and sustained' policy measures, including reducing the carbon intensity of fuels by substituting oil-based products with biofuels, the coalition points out.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), by 2050, sustainable biofuels could provide 27% of the world's total transport fuel and avoid around 2.1 gigatonnes of CO2 emissions per year, with biofuels eventually providing 23% of total emission reductions in the transport sector, the coalition goes on. Sustainable biofuels, such as ethanol, can be used in the existing vehicle fleet to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40-90% compared to fossil fuels and must be considered an important part of the toolkit to decarbonise transport, it argues. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)