Biofuels already deliver concrete climate benefits while supporting farmers and rural economies, according to Luigi Scordamaglia, President of Eat Europe, speaking today at an event hosted by Honourable Dario Nardella and co-organised by Fuels Europe and European Biodiesel Board on “The role of sustainable biomass in decarbonising transport and achieving climate neutrality”.

“Biofuels are not a future promise — they are a solution that already works today, reducing emissions while creating economic opportunities for farmers and rural areas,” said Scordamaglia. “Climate ambition cannot be separated from the sustainability and competitiveness of agriculture,” Scordamaglia stressed. “Reaching EU climate targets will require a significant increase in agricultural production, making it essential to align climate action with farm viability.”

A carbon-neutral economy is, by definition, a bioeconomy — one in which the EU farming sector plays a central role and stands on the front line of climate solutions.
What matters is building on existing value chains and strengthening them, going further by developing the bioeconomy on top of current structures. This means maximising the potential of agricultural production through better value-chain optimisation and sustainable intensification, while opening access to new markets. According to a study by Farm Europe, achieving the EU’s 2030 climate targets will require a 13% increase in agricultural production, rising to 25% by 2050. This increase is achievable in a sustainable way, provided that investments and innovation are mobilised and that farmers — supported by a clear and coherent EU strategy — are placed at the centre of European policies.

Europe needs pragmatic and immediately deployable solutions rather than relying solely on technologies that are not yet mature. In this context greater realism is needed in the debate on e-fuels, noting their high costs and limited near-term scalability. Research on e-fuels is welcome but presenting them as a short-term solution is misleading. Biofuels, by contrast, are available, scalable and competitive today.

Addressing concerns about competition with food production and other uses, Eat Europe pointed to strong evidence demonstrating the synergies in biorefineries allowing to maximise the processing of crops for multipurpose and the potential of second, cover and intermediate crops, as well as the use of degraded land, to provide sustainable biofuel feedstocks while improving soil health and farm incomes. In this context, Eat Europe stressed that there is no need to prioritise the allocation of biomass between food, materials and transport fuels: when properly managed and supported by an enabling regulatory framework, biomass availability is sufficient to meet the needs of all sectors, thanks to the vast untapped potential of agricultural production and the development of integrated biorefinery models delivering multiple high-value outputs.

Finally, Scordamaglia underlined that credibility and reciprocity are essential for the sector’s success, particularly in light of recent concerns over imports of allegedly fraudulent used cooking oil.

“We cannot support farmers in words while denying them access to one of the most promising new value chains. Biofuels offer a transition that is environmentally effective, economically viable and socially fair,” he concluded.