Quality of petrol and diesel fuel used for road transport in the European Union (Reporting year 2018)

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 2018)

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 applied for the first time for the reporting year 2017, following the application and transposition of Council Directive (EU) 2015/652. This annual report comprises the data reported for the year 2018.

Furthermore, pursuant 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 2018.

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.

In year 2018, all 28 Member States (as well as Norway and Iceland) provided data on greenhouse gas emmission reductions in the appropriate format.

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 28 reporting Member States in 2018 was 90.6 gCO2eq/MJ, which is 3.7 % lower than the 2010 baseline of 94,1 gCO2eq/MJ. This corresponds to a saving of 51 Mt carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) during the year 2018. The progress achieved by fuel suppliers has been limited between the years 2017 and 2018 with an improvement of 0.3 percentage point of the reported average GHG intensity of the fuels.

Reported data for 2018 confirms that EU fuel suppliers in the 28 reporting Member States were on average behind their objective of reducing the GHG intensity of transport fuels by 6 % by 2020, compared with 2010 (see Figure 1). It is to be noted that in 2018 no upstream emission reductions (UER) were reported. These are expected to contribute to the reduction target in the year 2020.

Furthermore, progress varies greatly across Member States. In 23 Member States, the reductions in 2018 still remain lower than the optional intermediate target of 4% that Member States could require fuel suppliers to comply with already for the year 2017. Sweden and Finland are the only Member States having already exceeded the 6 % reduction target for 2020 (further information can be found in the EEA Technical Report No 2/2020 on ‘Greenhouse gas intensities of transport fuels in the EU in 2018). Therefore, almost all Member States need to take swiftly further action to ensure that the 2020 target is met.

Figure 1: Reductions in GHG intensity of fuels achieved by EU fuel suppliers in Member States, 2010-2018 (Source: EEA)