Quality of petrol and diesel fuel used for road transport in the European Union (Reporting year 2017)

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL

REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL

Quality of petrol and diesel fuel used for road transport in the European Union

(Reporting year 2017)

1. Introduction

Pursuant to Article 7a of Directive 98/70/EC relating to the quality of petrol and diesel fuels (henceforth the "Fuel Quality Directive") and Article 5 of Council Directive (EU) 2015/652 laying down calculation methods and reporting requirements pursuant to Directive 98/70/EC, Member States are required to report annually on the greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of fuels and energy supplied in their territories. This reporting obligation applies for the first time for the reporting year 2017, following the application and transposition of Council Directive (EU) 2015/652.

Furthermore, pusuant to Article 8(3) of Directive 98/70/EC Member States are required to report on national fuel quality data for the preceding calendar year..

This annual report summarises the information provided by Member States in relation to the above-mentioned reporting requirements. It is based on the data submitted by Member States to the European Environment Agency (EEA) for the year 2017.

2. Volumes and life cycle greenhouse gas intensity of fuel and energy types

Article 7a of the Fuel Quality Directive, in conjunction with the Council Directive (EU) 2015/652, sets out reporting requirements concerning the following:

·the total volume of each type of fuel or energy supplied for road transport and non-road mobile machinery (including inland waterway vessels when not at sea), agricultural and forestry tractors, and recreational craft when not at sea;

·the life cycle GHG emissions per unit of energy, including the provisional mean values of the estimated indirect land use change (ILUC) emissions from biofuels.

·the feedstock and the biofuel production pathway used for each of the biofuels supplied on the territories of Member States.

The Fuel Quality Directive obliges Member States to require fuel suppliers to reduce the life cycle GHG intensity of transport fuels, i.e. the life cycle GHG emissions per unit of energy from fuel and energy supplied, by a minimum of 6 % by 31 December 2020 compared with the fuel baseline standard for 2010 of 94,1 gCO2eq/MJ. ILUC GHG emissions are not taken into account in assessing compliance with the minimum 6% reduction target.

Given that 2017 is the first reporting year, and the transposition of Council Directive (EU) 2015/652 was delayed in many Member States, this first report on the volumes and life cycle greenhouse gas intensity of fuel and energy types is not yet complete. A total of 22 Member States as well as Iceland and Norway, provided corresponding data in the appropriate format. Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania and Spain submitted reports on the quality of the fuels placed on the market by fuel suppliers but not on their greenhouse gas intensity.

2.1Greenhouse gas emissions and distance to 2020 target

According to the data provided, the average GHG intensity of the fuels and energy supplied in the 22 reporting Member States in 2017 was 3.4 % lower than the 2010 baseline. This corresponds to a saving of 29 Mt carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) in the year 2017.

To ensure the delivery of the minimum 6 % reduction target by 2020, the Fuel Quality Directive specifies that Member States may require fuel suppliers to comply with an intermediate reduction target of 4 % for the year 2017.

Using this as a reference to assess the progress achieved indicates that, in 2017, EU fuel suppliers in the 22 reporting Member States were on average behind their objective of reducing the GHG intensity of transport fuels by 6 % by 2020, compared with 2010 (Figure 1). It is to be noted that in 2017 no upstream emission reductions (UER) were reported. These are expected to contribute to the reduction target in the year 2020 for which they have to be reported.

The progress achieved by fuel suppliers varies greatly across Member States. In 5 of the 22 reporting Member States, reductions were equal to or greater than 4 %, with Sweden being the only Member State having already exceeded the 6 % reduction target for 2020. Therefore, almost all Member States need to take swiftly further action to ensure that the 2020 target is met.