The accelerated use of sustainable alternative fuels in all transport modes is a key priority under the implementation of the European Green Deal. Different transport modes have different demands, while fuels also differ in their availability. Use of those fuels in different transport modes will have to address criteria such as sustainability, market availability, infrastructure requirements and usability per mode. These are influenced by relevant EU law such as the CO2 emission performance standards for light- and heavy-duty vehicles, Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive or Renewable Energies Directive. Following the proposal for a European Climate Law, the role of sustainable alternative fuels use will have to be fully integrated into a long-term decarbonization strategy for road and maritime transport and ways to integrate fuel benefits in the respective regulatory and market framework conditions.
Long-distance road haul and European inland waterways and intra-EU maritime are sectors that are particularly hard to decarbonize. At the same time they are expected to significantly grow in the future. However, potentials, and limits, of various sustainable alternative fuels solutions are often not fully clear to market actors. This session will discuss the current state of play in markets for alternative fuels, before continuing with looking particularly at use conditions in the road haul, inland waterways and intra-EU maritime. Comparison of the two sectors will help also to better understand implications for general energy and transport policy, fuel producers, distributors and users in terms of meeting competing demands under conditions of future fuels availability.
The European Green Deal sets out the need to reduce transport emissions by -90% by 2050. Transport fuels need to be almost completely decarbonised by that time. The session will help to understand better, where one would need to increase the production of certain sustainable alternative fuels and how one could better understand and address competing use cases, particularly in heavy duty road haul, inland waterways and intra-EU shipping.
