The European Commission (EC) published its ‘Fit for 55’ legislative package on 14 July, which proposes more blending of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and maritime fuel.
Comprising a range of measures, the ‘Fit for 55’ package provides clear and binding targets towards greenhouse gas emissions reductions of 55% by 2030.
The ReFuelEU Aviation initiative would oblige fuel suppliers to blend increasing levels of SAF in jet fuel taken onboard at EU airports, including synthetic low carbon fuels, known as e-fuels, according to the EC website.
Meanwhile, the FuelEU Maritime Initiative will stimulate the uptake of sustainable maritime fuels and zero-emission technologies by setting a maximum limit on the greenhouse gas content of energy used by ships calling at European ports.
If the ReFuelEU Aviation proposal was adopted, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) said it would be responsible for a number of monitoring and reporting tasks to ensure that aircraft operators and fuel suppliers complied with the ReFuelEU Aviation reporting obligations.
Annual EASA reports would give an overview of the state of the market, including price information, and SAF production trends and consumption in the EU, the agency said.
The overall goal of the ReFuelEU Aviation initiative was to set out harmonised rules at EU level, to maintain a competitive level playing field, and to increase the uptake of SAF by operators and increase distribution at EU airports, according to EASA.
Although the Fit for 55 proposals were welcomed by the European Biodiesel Board (EBB), the body said the transport sector needed more sustainable, affordable and available solutions like biodiesel.
“Today’s package severely limits biodiesel’s role and fails to provide the right support and incentives to fully ramp up European transport decarbonisation efforts.
Most significant is the striking absence of support for sustainable biodiesel in hard-to-decarbonise transport sectors like freight, aviation and maritime,” the EBB said in a statement on 14 July.
