Exempting e-fuels from the EU’s combustion engine ban following Germany’s push to do so is puzzling, according to League MP Luca Toccalini (ID), pointing to the Commission rejecting Italy’s demand to exempt biofuels which then led to Rome’s abstention from the combustion vote.
Following an agreement with Berlin, it was decided that e-fuels would be exempted from the widespread EU ban on combustion engines from 2035.
The agreement with Berlin disappointed Italy, which had instead asked for an exemption for biofuels, which was ultimately rejected, leading to Italy abstaining in the vote.
“It is a choice that should be understood as an openness to dialogue”, reassured Toccalini.
The Commission’s move in favour of e-fuels demanded by Germany is “puzzling” yet not surprising given that it is “not by chance a leader in the production”.
“Germany, as always, defends its own interests, strong from a hitherto privileged relationship with the European Commission”, said Toccalini, stressing how the high cost of production of synthetic fuels could severely impact the Italian automotive market, which accounts for 13% of the GDP and about 250,000 jobs.
“Experts argue that e-fuels are not economically viable for small cars, and therefore the risk is that only those in possession of luxury cars, such as Germany’s Porsche and Audi, can afford them”, the MP added.
“Finding the alternative, converging on biofuels, is crucial for us, as well as being a greener choice than e-fuels in terms of circular economy”, he added.
At the same time, the conclusions of the G7 Climate, Energy and Environment Summit in Sapporo, Japan, point to both biofuels and synthetic fuels as “opportunities to contribute to a strong decarbonisation of the automotive sector”.
Both e-fuels and biofuels are considered ‘carbon neutral’. However, the difference in the EU regulation lies in the investments made by each country – with Germany having made significant investments in synthetic fuels in recent years, while the same goes for Italy’s state-owned oil company Eni, which to date is Europe’s leading biofuel producer.
Eni expects to produce two million tons of biofuels by 2025 and reach six million per year within ten years. However, according to 2021 data from the Ministry of Enterprise, in Italy, 7 million tons of gasoline for cars, 23 million tons of diesel fuel for diesel engines, and 4.5 million tons of jet kerosene are consumed annually.
Eni is investing in several African countries to increase production since, as CEO Claudio Descalzi pointed out, “even without the car, the market is there”, namely aviation and maritime.
Descalzi accompanied Meloni on all her official visits to Africa, where he concluded important trade agreements.
Biofuels battle
“The biofuels game is by no means lost”, Meloni said on the sidelines of the last Eurosummit.
And indeed, after the vote on the EU regulation, from which biofuels were excluded, EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson said that biofuels are “necessary” and that the Commission still intends to support their production.
“The negotiation on biofuels is open, and there is on the European side willingness to discuss based on the principle of technology neutrality. Endothermic engines will not be retired in 2035, and Italy will be at the forefront both on the bio-fuel, where we are already ahead and on e-fuels, with the strong investments put in place on hydrogen. Of course, electricity will be an important technology for the automotive of the future. But not the only one”, said Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin commenting on Simson’s words.
At the 19th Italy-Spain Dialogue Forum in Rome, Fratin called for solidarity with the next EU Council president Spain – and other European countries to “scientifically assess the technological neutrality of biofuels”.
Meloni said she does not believe that the EU should be in the business of determining what technologies should be used to reach the goals shared by the Italian executive of the ecological transition.
“There are technologies on which Italy, and therefore Europe, are potentially a vanguard and, with respect to such a hypothesis, to decide to bind ourselves to technologies, which instead are in fact held as a vanguard by nations outside the Union, in my opinion, is a choice that does not favour the competitiveness of our system”, Meloni said upon her arrival at the Europa Building in Brussels before the latest EU summit.
(Federica Pascale | EURACTIV.it)
Source: euractiv.com
