EU’s transport strategy is opportunity for chems – Cefic
Stefan Baumgarten
20-Jul-2016
LONDON (ICIS)–The European Commission’s strategy
to decarbonise the EU’s transport sector is a
big opportunity for chemical producers, the European
Chemical Industry Association (Cefic) said on
Wednesday.
In fact, the chemical industry is the “key enabler” for the
future of the EU’s transport sector, Cefic said in commenting
on the strategy, which was disclosed earlier on
Wednesday.
The strategy outlines three steps: efficiency in the
transport system; low-emission alternative energy sources;
and low- and zero-emission vehicles.
“Decarbonising EU transport, whether for passenger or freight
transport, will require innovative chemistry,” said Marco
Mensink, Cefic’s director general.
Mensink noted that EU-based chemical companies already make
lightweight composite material for vehicles to increase fuel
efficiency.
In addition, the industry is developing energy storage
technology, he said.
“We have identified ‘power to gas’ and ‘power to liquid’ as
offering huge potential towards decarbonising transport,” he
said.
“Moving beyond first generation fuels to advanced biofuels is
another step change our sector can be part of,” he
said.
Mensink added that Cefic is looking to the European
Commission to be consistent in its policies for second
generation bio-based fuels.
After an initial strong push for first generation, food-based
biofuels, the Commission then changed tack – which has
depressed investment in the biofuels sector for the last
years, he said.
“Long-term certainty will be critical in order for investment
decisions to support uptake of alternative fuels” he
said.
The automotive industry is a
major global consumer of petrochemicals which contributes
more than a third of the raw material costs of an average
vehicle. ICIS tracks the movement of petrochemical raw
material costs in auto production both globally and
regionally with the weighted ICIS Basket of Automotive
Petrochemicals (IBAP).
ICIS produces a monthly Global Automotive report
covering the major automotive chemicals
markets, the auto-industry, the IBAPs and
macroeconomic trends. For more information on the report and
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