Inserting a biofuels loophole in the EU 2035 cars law could see a huge spike in demand for biofuels from waste feedstocks like animal fats, used cooking oil, and palm oil by-products, a new T&E analysis finds.

A car running on animal fats, for example, would require the equivalent of 120 pigs a year. This additional demand could lead to cars, planes, and ships consuming two to nine times more advanced biofuels than can be sustainably sourced in the future.

‘Absurd…’

The EU is under pressure from the fuel and car industries to allow new combustion engines running on biofuels to be sold after its 2035 deadline for zero-emission cars. This loophole would see cars gobble up the limited supply of sustainable, advanced biofuels, making it harder to green hard-to-decarbonize sectors like aviation. Planes and ships alone will require roughly twice as much advanced biofuel as can be sustainably sourced in Europe by 2050.

Lucien Mathieu, cars director at T&E: “The push for biofuels is absurd. […] Why are the car and oil lobbies flogging non-solutions when we have a ready technology in electric cars? This is nothing but a delay tactic that will leave Europe uncompetitive in the global EV market.”

120 pigs or 25 kg of fries

Already today, European cars use 1.3 million tons of animal fats per year – equivalent to 200 million slaughtered pigs. For every new car running on animal fats, around 120 pigs would be required a year, the analysis finds. Alternatively, a new car running on used cooking oil would need 25 kg of fries per day.

A huge gap between the demand and the availability of sustainably sourced biofuels will also increase Europe’s dependency on imports. Currently, T&E estimates that 60% of Europe’s biofuels are imported from third countries. With the extra demand for cars created by a biofuels loophole, this could rise to 90% in 2050, the analysis finds.