Appropriateness of legislation on the biogas sector
24.3.2020
Priority question for written answer P-001821/2020
to the Commission
Rule 138
Heidi Hautala (Verts/ALE)
Increasing the use of biogas as a transport fuel is one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport. The regulation on CO2 emissions from private cars is a strong instrument to guide behaviour, and not a technology-neutral one.
As from 2020, mean CO2 emissions from new private cars must be below 95 g/km, and the target for the year 2025 is 15% less than that for 2021, for which the regulation limits the options for new vehicles to fully electric propulsion or rechargeable hybrids.
The current directive is likely to put a complete stop to the manufacture of gas-fuelled cars within a very short space of time. Gas-fuelled cars cannot comply with the emission limit laid down in the directive, because emissions are measured only at the exhaust pipe, and natural gas emission values are used for the purpose. This means that the life-cycle emissions of biogas are not taken into account.
Under EU legislation, emissions from gas-fuelled cars are calculated on the basis of natural gas rather than biogas. Biogas is a 100% renewable fuel, and an element in the circular economy. Under the UN Climate Agreement, all completely renewable fuels are supposed to be classified as carbon-free.
I should therefore like to ask:
- 1.What action will the Commission take, and within what time frame, to ensure that transport biogas is numbered among the means of attaining emission targets for transport?
- 2.In this context, will the Commission investigate the possibility of measuring total emissions during a car’s life cycle (WTW) rather than measuring exhaust pipe emissions (TTW), as at present, or measure emissions in some other way, for example so as to make it possible to apply a quota for the use of biogas in order to take biogas into account in legislation on vehicles?
- 3.Will the Commission introduce a Carbon Correction Factor (further information available from the Natural & bio Gas Vehicle Association (NGVA Europe)), so that the share of renewable biogas in gas used as a transport fuel can be taken into account?