Specification of petrol, diesel and gas-oil: mechanism to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fuels. "Fuel Quality Directive"

2007/0019(COD)

The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted the report by Dorette CORBEY (PES, NL) amending, under the 1st reading of the codecision procedure, the proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 98/70/EC as regards the specification of petrol, diesel and gas-oil and introducing a mechanism to monitor and the introduction of a mechanism to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the use of road transport fuels and amending Council Directive 1999/32/EC, as regards the specification of fuel used by inland waterway vessels and repealing Directive 93/12/EEC.

Amendments made by the committee are as follows:

Scope: the scope of the Directive has been extended to state that the Directive sets technical specifications on health and environmental grounds for fuels to be used for vehicles equipped with positive-ignition and compression-ignition engines and other vehicle engine technologies.

Petrol: Member States shall also ensure that by 1 January 2012 at the latest unleaded petrol with a bioethanol content of at least 70% by volume complies with the environmental specifications laid down in Annex VIa. Moreover, fuel meeting the specification set out in Annex III shall not require specific labelling in respect of the level of ethanol or ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE) it contains.

Diesel: by 31 December 2009 at the latest, the maximum permissible sulphur content of gas oils intended for use by nonroad mobile machinery and agricultural and forestry tractors, including inland waterway vessels, shall be 10 mg/kg.This does not preclude further requirements for reductions of vessel engine emissions. Member States shall also ensure that, by 31 December 2009 at the latest, gas oils intended for use by non-road mobile machinery and inland waterway vessels are aligned with on-road diesel fuel quality as specified under Annex IV.

Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions: the committee proposes that from 1 January 2010 (and not 2009), Member States shall require suppliers of fuels for road transport and non-road mobile machinery that are placed on the market, to monitor and report the life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from those fuels. Moreover, from 1 January 2012, Member States shall require suppliers of fuels for road transport and non-road mobile machinery that are placed on the market, to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gas emissions from those fuels per unit of energy. The emission reduction compared to the base year shall equal at least an additional 2% of the emissions in 2010 per two years for every two calendar years up to and including 2020. The level of life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions per unit of energy reported in 2020 shall be no greater than 90% of the level reported in 2010

Sustainability criteria for biofuels and biomass: amendments have been introduced guaranteeing that only those biofuels and non-fossil feedstocks that meet the criteria for sustainability of production and can prove greenhouse gas performance on a life-cycle basis shall be counted as contributing to the objective of the Directive.

Use of the metallic additive (MMT) in fuel: MEPs call for the use of the metallic additive MMT in fuel to be prohibited from 1 January 2010 onwards. The Commission shall develop a suitable test methodology concerning the use of metallic additives in fuel other than MMT.

Air quality: it is desirable to reduce emissions of damaging Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PACs) to the absolute minimum. The committee wishes to reduce the maximum permitted PAC content from 10% to 6% rather than to 8% as proposed by the Commission.In Annex V, MEPs also stated that for Member States with low summer temperature conditions the maximum vapour pressure shall not exceed 66.0 kPa. Vapour pressure for the summer period shall not exceed 56 kPa (as opposed to 60 kPa proposed by the Commission).

Annexes: MEPs introduced two new annexes: i) annex VI a on the method for measuring lifecycle greenhouse gas emission from all fuels and ii) annex VI b on the sustainability criteria for biofules and biomass (biodiversity and social sustainability criteria).

Report: the Commission is invited to submit by 31 June 2008 a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the basis of the guidelines as outlined in Annex VIa in which it clarifies: a) the methodology for monitoring and reporting life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions from road fuels; b) the relationship of any reduction mechanism with the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and Member States' commitments under the Kyoto Protocol; c) the definition of the base year.