EU approves ban on diesel, petrol, methane and LPG engines.Italy's road to biofuels risks being a dead end

“We are convinced that biofuels can also fall into the category of neutral fuels in terms of overall CO2 balance and contribute to the progressive decarbonisation of the sector.We will therefore work, as part of the procedures for approving the legislative acts indicated by the Commission, to also have biofuels considered among neutral fuels in terms of CO2".

The comment by the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security Gilberto Pichetto Fratin tries to mask the disappointment of the Meloni government which has to take another European bitter pill on biofuels.

In fact, on 28 March, the Energy Council of the European Union, in which the government representatives of the 27 member states were present, approved the regulation setting stricter CO2 emissions performance standards for new cars and vans.In application of Fif for 55 measurement package, with which the European Union intends to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, the regulation approved by the Council provides in a first phase for the reduction of CO2 emissions by 55% for new cars and 50% for new vans from 2030 to 2034 compared to 2021 levels;and subsequently the 100% reduction in CO2 emissions for both new cars and vans starting from 2035. If Germany succeeded in this step in getting an exception approved for the so-called e-fuels (synthetic fuels, obtained from the extraction of hydrogen from water and subsequent mixing with carbon dioxide), the same operation was not achieved in Italy with biofuels (fuels obtained from raw materials of agricultural).In fact, both states aim to extend the life of internal combustion engines beyond 2035, the date beyond which the EU intends to ban the production of vehicles with petrol, diesel, methane and LPG engines.

The scope was to replicate the similar operation that had taken place during the European taxonomy, i.e. the classification of economic activities considered sustainable, in which the pincer maneuver of the member states on the European Commission had allowed it to be included among the energy sources green nuclear and, above all, natural gas.

Now, however, Italy risks being left holding the bag.On the vote on Tuesday 28 March Italy she abstained together with Romania and Bulgaria, while Poland voted against (this was the intention of the Meloni government until Monday), and the list of countries that have opposed it already testifies that Italy is not only playing a rearguard game in the automotive sector but is doing so together with some of the weakest states in the Union.

The role of electric cars in the fight against climate change

The new European rules, which will be active after publication in the Official Journal of the European Union, provide for the ban starting from 2035 of the production of internal combustion engines - petrol, diesel, methane and LPG - with the aim, we read in the press release Council press, to “reduce emissions from road transport, which has the highest share of transport emissions” and provide “the right push for the automotive industry to move towards zero-emission mobility, while ensuring continuous innovation in sector".It is true that the European regulation provides for a review clause in 2026, with which the Commission will be able to evaluate the achievement of the 100% emission reduction objectives by 2035 by any neutral fuels, but it is equally undeniable that hardly in three years biofuels will be able to achieve such an ambitious standard.Because the doubts hovering over biofuels are currently much more numerous than the presumed merits.As long as you don't read the newspapers.Where the distinction between information and propaganda becomes increasingly complicated to identify.

Doubts about biofuels

During the month of March the Italian government passed from triumphalism of Minister Fratin ("We have dictated the line to Europe, in addition to electric there is biofuel") to cautious optimism of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni ("The game on biofuels is not lost at all") up to the joint letter sent from ministers Fratin, Urso and Salvini to the vice president of the European Commission Frans Timmermans ("There is a need to respect the principle of technological neutrality to guarantee an economically sustainable and socially fair transition").

🗣️ "On the postponement of the European regulation which provides for the ban on petrol and diesel cars from 2035, Italy had the merit of being the pioneer of the ongoing rethinking:we have the duty to defend over 70 thousand jobs." @GPichetto

🗞️https://t.co/Y0b8XHNuur pic.twitter.com/xHus0V4S5A

— Ministry of the Environment and Energy Safety (@MASE_IT) March 4, 2023

Precisely in March, in the midst of these maneuvers which later proved unsuccessful (at least at the moment), a report was released which dismantled the arguments in favor of biofuels one by one.As reports Other economics:

“Plant-based biofuels are probably the stupidest thing ever promoted in the name of the climate.”Maik Marahrens, biofuels manager at Transport&Environment, did not mince his words in commenting on the new development relationship published on 9 March which the European Federation for Transport and the Environment edited together with the NGO Oxfam.Today, Europe uses the equivalent of around 9.6 million hectares of agricultural land (an area the size of Ireland) to grow rapeseed, maize, soya, sugar beets, wheat and other foodstuffs which, instead of end up on our tables, they are used to produce bioethanol, biodiesel and biomethane.“We are giving up vast portions of land for crops which we then burn in our cars - continues Marahrens - It's a scandalous waste:these lands could feed millions of people or, if returned to nature, could become carbon sinks rich in biodiversity."

The use of these fuels had been introduced at European level with a directive of 2009 which aimed to reduce the use of fossil fuels;but then it was discovered that the integration of the latter with biofuels of food origin was equally harmful, especially with palm oil and soybean oil, which he brought over the years to wild deforestation in Indonesia.Actually the T&E and Oxfam report concentrates exclusively on first generation biofuels, those of plant origin, and leaves out second generation biofuels, obtained from marginal crops or with food waste.How though he pointed out Nicola Armaroli, chemist and research manager at the CNR as well as one of the most well-known energy experts in Italy, "less than 10% of the biofuels currently in circulation are made up of second generation biofuels".

Armaroli himself, among other things, is one of the authors of a reports, delivered in April 2022 to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility (now Transport) and recently resumed and expanded into a book for Il Mulino editions, which analyzed the various sustainable mobility options.With the electric that was indicated the first option to decarbonise transport and the others only when there were no alternatives.In that report it was underlined that 

“The partial replacement of conventional fuels with biofuels leads to marginal advantages in terms of emissions reduction, as the emissions profile of biofuels, even second generation ones, is still high and leads to low efficiencies and considerable energy costs.Biomethane, hydrogen, biofuels and synthetic fuels will be available in limited quantities, due to constraints on the availability of sustainable biomass or low-cost renewable energy."

Not even a year later, the Meloni government disavows the report that the Draghi government had promoted and turns decisively towards biofuels, without making any more distinctions.A change that can be summarized in one word:ENI.

ENI propaganda on biofuels

Reading the newspapers of recent months, the fact that ENI is the main player in the field of biofuels, and the true director of the Italian maneuver in Europe, can be seen indirectly.In fact, just look at the tons of advertising with which the energy company has invaded every media outlet.Between September and October 2022, numerous announcements of this kind can be read, where the distinction between information and advertising becomes blurred:

It is reported that from October 2022 the two Italian biorefineries in Gela and Venice will stop using palm oil from Indonesia.However, no one remembers that this choice is not ENI's good will but only a legal obligation.In April last year, in fact, the Italian Parliament, implementing the European delegation law, established a ban on mixing palm oil (and soybean oil) with diesel fuel starting from 1 January 2023.From the announcement published on The Messenger (and other newspapers) we learn that:

Last November, the first load of vegetable oil produced in the Makueni agri-hub arrived in Gela from Kenya, a center for the collection and pressing of castor, croton and cotton seeds which also acts as a training and technical support center for farmers.ENI was the first company in the world to certify castor and croton, allowing an African cotton mill to reach these guarantee standards and offering new market opportunities to local farmers.The Kenyan initiative does not stop here:envisages the construction of other agri-hubs (the second will come into operation in 2023) and the increase in production with the involvement of tens of thousands of farmers, significantly contributing to promoting the country's rural development.Furthermore, ENI is also exporting used cooking oil (UCO) collected in hotels, restaurants and bars in Nairobi, through a project already underway that promotes the culture of recycling and income generated from waste.

At the 2022 shareholders' meeting the A Sud association he had asked further clarifications to the company, starting from the assumption that:

We would have hoped for more circular and short supply chain solutions.And instead the new raw material of the "biorefinery" will be castor oil from Africa.ENI writes that "the castor oil, during the first production phase, which will last a year, will be transported with flexibags which will travel by sea and will be unloaded in the ports of Palermo and Catania.Subsequently, as volumes increase, transport will take place by ship."The company even explains that "the associated emission calculations" of such transport are being perfected.Faced with this lack of evaluation, the company then tries to remedy it by adding that in any case these are values ​​"which are nevertheless significantly lower, along the entire production chain, compared to other feedstocks of plant origin which will be displaced by these new availability ”.But how do they know them if they haven't calculated them?

While waiting to understand whether the emission calculations of the entire castor oil production cycle, necessary for second generation biofuels, have been carried out, doubts remain and also extend to used oils.On The Manifesto in May 2022 it was read That:

“There is very little used vegetable oil in Italy” explains Ennio Fano, president of the RenOils consortium which, together with Conoe, deals with the collection of used oils in Italy.According to the latest data, the two consortia together collect 80 thousand tons per year.“Only ENI would need one million tonnes in 2022 to mix it with diesel and obtain biofuels.The company recently informed us that from 2025 this need will double, and therefore two million tons will be needed for ENI alone."A large portion of the oils needed to feed the biorefineries in Gela and Venice, therefore, will not come from Italian waste oils and will actually be imported from China and India which are the main suppliers.

Precisely the same China which in the transition to electric is being agitated like a bogeyman because it possesses resources and skills, while the same argument apparently it's not valid for biofuels.At least for the Meloni government.

The six-legged direction on Italian maneuvers in Europe is effective synthesized from The Daily Fact:

Because for Giorgia Meloni and Matteo Salvini it is so crucial the European game – currently lost – on the inclusion of biofuels among the fuels that can be used by thermal engines even after 2035?The answer is simple:as has always happened, foreign and energy policy are closely linked to ENI's plans.Just read the report on the EU Fit for 55 package presented in Parliament a year ago by the six-legged dog, at the center of the risk these days for the renewal of the top management of public companies.There, on page 5, the oil and gas group wrote that it believed it was necessary to "correct the current approach which does not consider the lower emissions of biofuels for the purposes of complying with emission standards" and that it hoped that the Commission "expresses itself and commitments in favor of the development of a policy framework capable of effectively supporting the production of sustainable biofuels that can be used in purity".

TO February 2023, meanwhile, ENI launches another huge communication campaign on the new product HVOlution:this is the new biodiesel Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil, i.e. hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is launched in 50 service stations, which will become 150 at the end of March.Not exactly great news, if you consider that the state company owns 4,310 service stations in Italy.Yet just search on any search engine to discover the massive journalistic coverage.Really The Corriere della Sera public the map of the 50 stations, complete with the address for each, indicates the cars compatible with the new biodiesel and points out that "it costs ten cents more than normal diesel because the raw materials have a higher price and the production costs are higher".

A love story, the one between ENI and the world of information, recently interrupted by the newspaper Domani, one of the few newspapers capable of remaining critical of the six-legged dog's work and reporting the company's influences on national energy policy, so much so as to have caught a piqued response from the ENI press office after an editorial by the director Stefano Feltri.The newsletter Charlie de The Post, which deals with the analysis of the dynamics that move and govern the Italian and international information system, has focused several times on the "tangle of interests and priorities that limits the autonomy of the major newspapers from their major advertiser - ENI", telling in the March 26 edition, the company's predilection, claimed by the press office, to report newspapers in civil proceedings rather than in criminal proceedings when it believes it is faced with “accusatory articles without any foundation":

“The risks of compensation in these cases (combined with the still onerous costs of any legal action) are almost always much more worrying for newspapers and journalists than criminal ones, and large companies that do not have expense problems can instead consider them valuable investments for the own communication (...) Domani is one of the few newspapers (along with Fatto and Il Manifesto) to deal in often critical tones with the large energy company ENI (whose complex activities create frequent opportunities for possible criticism), with which most instead, it maintains very welcoming relationships with the other newspapers and depends on the huge advertising investments of ENI itself in the newspapers".

Speaking of love for biofuels, come on @DomaniGiornale we had reported ENI's interests for some time.
I recommend the biorefinery map on @Courier pic.twitter.com/mB5JKexJjp

— Vanessa Ricciardi (@VanessaEffect) March 28, 2023

“Listening to the automotive industry and not just ENI”

Is the biofuels path really the only one that Italy can try to follow? Andrea Boraschi, director of Transport & Environment Italia, one of the most well-known and accredited European NGOs in the field of sustainable mobility, is not convinced.That biofuels can be useful in the heavy transport sector, especially aviation and maritime, is an argument beyond discussion, in the sense that even the most skeptical positions agree on this point.On the other hand, just in mid-March the Ministry of the Environment has released the EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) for the investment that will allow ENI to also produce biofuel for aircraft (biojets) at the Gela biorefinery, using second and third generation fillers, i.e. of biogenic origin (decomposing organic material).What is under discussion is the attempt to extend the use of biofuels to private transport and, above all, to make it the tool to save a technology that is more than 100 years old such as thermal combustion for cars.What, how he remembered the expert Nicola Armaroli again in a recent episode of Radio3 Science, “is highly inefficient and the use of biofuels changes nothing either from the point of view of efficiency or from the point of view of air pollution”.Who then should continue on this path?

“I think that the Italian government should first of all find a moment to deal in more depth with the market and with the automotive industry - observes Boraschi to Blue suitcase - ENI, we know, is a production company with a very significant specific weight in our country, it is a company controlled by the State and a series of strategic issues pass through it.But the battles made to guarantee the company's interests should take a backseat to the orientations of the automotive industry, which are very clear and move towards the electrification of the sector:because it is the most mature, most efficient and most available technology on the market."

Contrary to what is repeated by the government and some power apparatus, therefore, the automotive transition towards electric is not imposed by the European Union and is not the way to surrender to the dominance of China.Or, rather, both hypotheses risk becoming real if instead of undergoing these processes, revealing unnatural and counterproductive resistance, we try to govern and anticipate them.

“To date there are 1,200 billion in investments in electric cars and in the entire value chain, this can be an important source for the creation of jobs - says Boraschi - In Italy, starting from this year according to an analysis by Motus-E, one in five cars produced in our country will be electric.Furthermore, the part of the automotive sector dedicated to components now sells more than 60% of what it produces abroad.While all industrial groups have plans for the complete electrification of their fleets which effectively anticipate the 2035 deadline.Here, in our opinion the Italian government should look at this broader and more complete image and adopt a line in Europe that is not necessarily rearguard.I don't think that in perspective it is good for our country to be the last trench of the internal combustion engine."

Preview image via itmotor