Report

Biofuels on the Dutch market. Update: data for 2013

At the request of the environmental NGOs Greenpeace Nederland, the Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment, ActionAid, IUCN NL and Friends of the Earth-Netherlands, this year CE Delft once again carried out an update of the ranking of fuel suppliers according to the average CO2 emissions of their admixed biofuels in the Netherlands. In this year’s update, based on the data for 2013, Dutch output of biofuels is also reviewed.

Continuing trend to more sustainable biofuels
Compared with previous years, the average greenhouse gas intensity of the admixed biofuels has again decreased. This is due to a further increase in the share of biofuels derived from wastes and residues, which have considerably lower carbon emissions than biofuels from food crops.

Differences between oil companies remain substantial: the suppliers leading the pack in this year’s ranking – Salland en Esso – admix biofuels yielding around 85% carbon savings relative to fossil fuels, with those bringing up the rear scoring around 45%. The calculations cover direct as well as indirect carbon emissions.

Dutch biofuel production less sustainable
Dutch biofuel output exceeds domestic consumption by far, with a considerable fraction being produced for export. In other countries, biofuels from waste and residues account for a far smaller share of output than in the Netherlands, so it is anticipated that the share of biofuels from food crops will be far greater in production for export than in the biofuels destined for the Dutch market. This market is far less transparent, though: there are no data available on the feedstocks used, nor on the sustainability of the biofuels exported.

See also the earlier studies:
http://www.cedelft.eu/publicatie/biofuels_on_the_dutch_market/1463

Authors

More about