A missed opportunity: the final vote in Parliament on HDV CO₂ standards postpones a potential role for CO₂-neutral fuels by more than a year.

With today's vote, the Parliament has officially walked back the support to the role of CO₂- neutral fuels it had approved in the November 2023 Plenary.

Liana Gouta, Director General of FuelsEurope, stated: “Despite the inclusion of a recital which requests the Commission to make a proposal for a methodology to recognise HDVs using exclusively and permanently CO₂ neutral fuels as zero emission vehicles within a year after the entry into of the regulation, CO₂-neutral fuels have in fact been denied the possibility to contribute to the objective of the CO₂ standards for HDV. The delay for potential recognition of the fuels is a bad signal for potential investors in renewable fuels, not just for the decarbonisation of new vehicles and existing fleets, but also for aviation and maritime transport”.

FuelsEurope looks forward to the Commission's report by 2025, as a part of a broader strategy for the deployment of sustainable renewable fuels in the transition towards climate neutrality, and the revision of the HDV CO₂ standards regulation in 2027 or earlier. We are confident that the EU Institutions will recognise the benefits of sustainable, renewable fuels as a complementary route - side by side with electrification and other low-carbon technologies - to an accelerated, efficient and affordable decarbonisation of the HDV sector.