Energia sostenibile per aviazione, marittimo e trasporti pesanti: investimenti, costi e prospettive industriali tra decarbonizzazione e sicurezza energetica

Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine has highlighted the urgency of reducing the EU’s dependence on imported fossil fuels, while supporting at the same time its decarbonisation efforts. This requires the deployment of renewable energy sources across all sectors of the economy with a particular focus on sectors where progress has been slow. This is especially the case for hard-to-abate transport sector, namely aviation and maritime industry.

The Fit for 55 package introduced in 2021 had already proposed tackling these sectors, to get them in line with the efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Several measures affect in particular the biofuels sector – including the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), CO2 standards for cars and vans, the Effort Sharing Regulation and the Emissions Trading System with the possible inclusion of transport, and the Energy Taxation Directive. advanced biofuels have been identified in the REDII as one of the key solutions for the deployment of renewable energy sources as their role can be increased to support the reduction of emissions in all transport modes, including the hard to abate.

While discussion on these sectors’ decarbonisation has been mostly inspired by purely environmental considerations, the current degradation in Europe’s security environment and its energy implications impose a reflection on how to anticipate the decarbonisation of hard to abate sectors. While gas, seen as a transitional option, lies at core of current geopolitical tensions and is foreseen to cost higher for longer, preferred solutions such as hydrogen and its derivatives may only come onstream for the long term, operating at a different timescale with respect to the EU’s need to rapidly reduce its external exposures. This might pave the way for a reconsideration of the potential of biofuels. However, these resources remain controversial – o the basis of their environmental footprint and “feedstock vs foodstock” competition, especially relevant at times of global food crisis - while the potential of advanced (sustainable) biofuels remains disputed as the EU does not foresee a large uptake in its decarbonisation plans. Protectionist measures driven by sustainability considerations have been enacted in the past, causing trade tensions with third countries.

In light of this background, this event intends to discuss Italy’s biofuels challenges and prospects, in light of the currently volatile international political environment and the strengthening of Europe’s decarbonisation ambitions.

Programme

Welcome remarkes and chair

Marco Giuli

Session 1 – Opzioni per la decarbonizzazione del trasporto marittimo
David Chiaramonti
Livia Carratù

Session 2 – Dialogo con gli stakeholder
Enrico Mazzoli
Giuseppe Ricci
Massimiliano Bienati