ITRE Committee draft opinion on ReFuel

25 January 2022: The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) has published its draft opinion on the European Commission proposal of the ReFuel EU Aviation initiative.

• The report recognises that aviation is one of the most challenging sectors to decarbonise, as electrification will not be possible for most flights and SAF based on biomass will not be enough. The only viable path is the development of renewable fuels based on solar and wind energy, which are abundantly available and have much higher area efficiency than biomass.
• The rapporteur aims for a 100% share of SAF by 2040/2050 as the 63 per cent by 2050 proposed by the EC is not in line with its climate neutrality targets.
• The report also mentions that, given that aviation is one of the most inefficient modes of transport, it is necessary to reduce air traffic and shift to rail or water transport. If societal and environmental costs were included in ticket prices, at least short-haul flights for travel distances below 500 km would instantly cease to be economically viable.

• The rapporteur considers the current threshold as not ambitious enough and will advocate to include all airports in the regulation with at least 300.000 passengers per year, including the 12 biggest airports in outermost regions, covering 99.2 per cent of total passengers flying from an EU airport.
• The regulation should not only look at SAFs but also other technologies like electric and hydrogen flights.

You can find the ITRE draft opinion here.