European Commission action plan and directives to foster alternative fuels

Institute of Transportation Engineers. ITE Journal, Jan 2002

world transport news

The European Commission adopted an action plan and two proposals for directives to foster the use of alternative fuels for transport, starting with the regulatory and fiscal promotion of biofuels. The commission considers that the use of fuels (such as ethanol) derived from agricultural sources (i.e., biofuels) is the technology with the greatest potential in the short to medium term. The action plan outlines a strategy to achieve a 20 percent substitution of diesel and gasoline fuels by alternative fuels in the road-transport sector by 2020. It concludes that only three options would have the potential to achieve individually more than 5 percent of total transport fuel consumption over the next 20 years: biofuels, which are already available; natural gas in the medium term; and hydrogen and fuel cells in the long term. One proposed directive would establish a minimum level of biofuels as a proportion of fuels sold from 2005, starting with 2 percent and reaching 5.75 percent of fuels sold in 2010. The second proposed directive would give Member States the option of applying a reduced rate of excise duty to pure or blended biofuels, when used either as heating or motor fuel.

The texts of the action plan communication and the two proposals for directives will be available on the Europa Web site at: europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/energy_ transport/en/whats_new_en.html and europa.eu.int/comm/taxation_customs/ whatsnew.htm.

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