European Union wants to reduce the oil dependency of transport

Europe is heavily dependent on imported oil for its mobility and transport: in 2010, oil counted for 94% of the energy consumed in transport, with 55% the largest consumer, 84% of it imported, with a bill of up to EUR 1 Billion a day in 2011, leading to a significant deficit in the EU trade balance of around 2.5% of GDP.

The effect of the oil dependency on the European economy is too large to neglect; the Union must act to end it. A strategy for the transport sector to gradually replace oil with alternative fuels and build up the necessary infrastructure could bring savings on the oil import bill of EUR 4.2 Billion per year in 2020, increasing to EUR 9.3 Billion per year in 2030, and another EUR 1 Billion per year from dam-pening of price hikes.
Although further efficiency improvements spurred by EU regulations on vehicle emissions of CO2 will continue to represent the lowest hanging fruits in the short to medium term, low-CO2 alternatives to oil are also indispensable for a gradual decarbonisation of transport, a key objective of the Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth1, towards the target of a 60% reduction of CO2 emissions from transport by 2050 set out in the 2011 White Paper on Transport.
For these reasons, the communication of the European Union, published at the beginning of the year and aimed at setting a European direction on alternative fuels, sets out a comprehensive alternative fuels strategy and the road to its implementation covering all modes of transport. The strategy aims at establishing a long-term policy framework to guide technological development and investments in the deployment of these fuels and give confidence to consumers.
The communication is also accompanied by a legislative proposal which provides a general direction for the development of alternative fuels in the Single European Transport Area. Thus, member states would have the flexibility to develop policy frameworks for the market development of alternative fuels in their national context. The proposal also sets binding targets for the necessary infrastructure build-up, including common technical specifications. For electric recharging points, the proposal provides a single connector solution ensuring interoperability across the EU and certainty for the market.
“A consistent long-term strategy on alternative fuels has to meet the energy needs of all transport modes and be consistent with the EU 2020 strategy, including decarbonisation”, the Commission points out in the published communication.
Although the European Commission would like to reduce the oil dependency of transport, we cannot but observe that the strategy has not stressed the role of large scale electrification in rail transport as much as it should have. Needless to say that this measure is not only part of the plan to reduce the oil dependency of transport, but it is prioritised as well.
This has also been remarked by the Community of European Railway and Infrastructure Companies (CER), the “voice” of the most important actors in the European railway transport market. “The two legislative proposals barely mention the role that rail can play in helping solve those problems and in particular the need for further support to ensure that the European rail network can be fully electrified. All modes need to be supported to be as clean as they possibly can”, said Libor Lochman.
Thus, CER has expressed disappointment at the chiefly passing-by of the role that rail transport plays in ending oil dependency. Both the communication on a European strategy for alternative fuels and the Directive proposal on the standards and infrastructure for alternative fuels have ignored improvements which can be brought  to the rail infrastructure, rolling stock and train operation activities. Especially, the two proposals have omitted the finalization of the rail network electrification which would allow trains to run without carbon emissions.

[ by Elena Ilie ]
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