Biofuels

Biofuels are liquid transport fuels, such as biodiesel and bioethanol, made from biomass. They serve as a renewable alternative to fossil fuels in the EU's transport sector, helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the EU's security of supply.

Biofuels and biogas in co-processed fuels

The Commission adopted in June 2023 new rules establishing the share of biofuels and biogas in mixed fuels, co-processed using bio-based and fossil-based raw materials, and that can count towards the Renewable Energy Directive target for renewables in transport. The Delegated Regulation (EU/2023/1640) was published in the Official Journal of the EU on 18 August 2023 and has been subject to public feedback, several consultations and scrutiny from the European Parliament and the Council.

The revised Renewable Energy Directive establishes binding targets for the share of renewable energy in the transport sector, including maritime and aviation. By 2030, EU countries are required to either achieve a share of 29% of renewable energy in transport, or to reduce the emissions intensity of transport fuels by 14.5%, as well as a combined sub-target for renewable hydrogen and advanced biofuels of 5.5%.

They are also required to set out an obligation on fuel suppliers that ensures the achievement of this target.

The main verification method required in these rules is based on radiocarbon (14C) testing, while some flexibility is also allowed to use it in combination with other company or process-based testing methods. 

Union Database for Biofuels

Since end November 2024, the Commission’s Union Database for Biofuels (UDB) is functional covering both liquid and gaseous fuels and is being used by an increasing number of operators. The Commission is currently discussing a timeline with EU countries for its full mandatory deployment and use.  

The database was foreseen under Article 31a of the 2018 Renewable Energy Directive to ensure market transparency and traceability in the supply chains for liquid and gaseous renewable and recycled carbon fuels, mitigating the risk of irregularities and fraud as well as avoiding double counting and thereby supporting efforts to meet the ambitious EU decarbonisation targets. The UDB is a global traceability tool to trace consignments of renewable and recycled carbon fuels and the respective raw materials used for their production, from the point of origin of the raw materials to the point where fuels are put on the EU market for final consumption.

The Commission has also tabled a draft legal proposal for a delegated regulation on the Union Database that provides the legal basis for the extension of UDB traceability to cover raw materials upstream the supply chain. The draft text was subject to a call for feedback at the end of 2024 and in the first half of 2025 the Commission has had 2 rounds of discussions on the legal text of the delegated regulation with the expert group of EU countries. On this basis, the Commission expects to propose a final act for adoption in 2025. 

In parallel, the Commission is working on further elaborating and completing the overall rules on the Union Database, as part of the planned revision of the Implementing Regulation on sustainability certification, that is also expected to be finalised by the end of 2026. This set of rules will be complementary to the ones on tracing raw materials and will cover the rest of supply chain traced by the UDB. 

For more technical information, see Union Database for Biofuels - EC Public Wiki. 

Sustainability criteria

The revised Renewable Energy Directive (EU/2023/2413) provides an overarching policy for the promotion and use of energy from renewable sources in the EU. It also reinforces the sustainability criteria of bioenergy through different provisions, including the negative direct impact that the production of biofuels may have due to indirect land use change.

While biofuels are important in helping the EU meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets, feedstock  production for food and feed crop-based biofuels often takes place on cropland that was previously used for agriculture, to grow food or feed. Since this agricultural production is still necessary, food and feed crop-based biofuel production may lead to the extension of agricultural land into non-crop land, possibly including areas with high carbon stock, such as forests, wetlands and peatlands. This process is known as indirect land use change (ILUC). As it may cause the release of CO2 stored in trees and soil, ILUC poses a risk to the greenhouse gas savings that result from increased production of food and feed crop-based biofuels.

To address the issue of ILUC, the directive includes limits for all food and feed crop-based biofuels as well as a limit on high ILUC-risk biofuels, fuels with a significant expansion in land with high carbon stock. These limits affect the amount of these fuels that EU countries can count towards their national targets when calculating the overall national share of renewables and the share of renewables in transport. EU countries will still be able to use (and import) fuels covered by these limits, but they will not be able to include volumes exceeding these limits when calculating the extent to which they have fulfilled their renewable targets. The limit for biofuels with high ILUC-risk will gradually decrease to zero by 2030. The directive also introduces an exemption to these limits for biofuels certified as low ILUC-risk. 

For the implementation of this approach, as required by the directive, the Commission adopted the Delegated Regulation on indirect land-use change (EU/2019/807), in which it lays down provisions to determine the high ILUC-risk feedstock for which a significant expansion of the production area into land with high carbon stock is observed. It also sets out criteria to certify low ILUC-risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels.

The Commission adopted in 2019 an accompanying report on the status of production expansion of relevant food and feed crops worldwide (COM/2019/142), based on the best available scientific data. It provides information that EU countries can use jointly with the criteria set out in the delegated act in order to identify high ILUC-risk fuels and certify low ILUC-risk fuels.

Furthermore, specific rules and methodological guidance for certification of low ILUC-risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels have been included in the Implementing Regulation on sustainability certification proposed by the Commission in line with Article 30(8) of the revised directive. The Implementing Regulation was published in the Official Journal on 27 June 2022.

Quality standards for biofuels

Working together with the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN), the EU aims to develop and improve the technical quality standards of biofuels and biofuel blends for vehicle engines. The practical work is carried out by CEN Technical Committee 19, consisting of experts from the automotive and fuel industries, biofuels producers, and other stakeholders.

Reports on emissions from cultivation of raw materials for use in biofuels

Article 31 (2-4) of the Renewable Energy Directive (EU/2018/2001), as amended by Directive (EU) 2023/2413 requires that EU countries and third countries submit reports of cultivation emissions to the Commission. The reports should include a list of areas on their territory, which are classified as NUTS2, or at a more disaggregated NUTS level (equivalent size for territories outside the EU), where the typical greenhouse gas emissions from cultivation of agricultural raw materials could be expected to be lower than - or equal to - the emissions reported under the heading ‘Disaggregated default values for cultivation’ in part D of Annex V to the directive. They should also be  accompanied by a description of the method and data used to establish such list.

The Commission may decide, by means of an implementing act, that reports submitted by EU countries and by countries outside the EU contain accurate data for the purposes of measuring the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the cultivation of biofuel and bioliquid feedstocks typically produced in those areas.

These reports and Implementing Acts are listed below: