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Europe is about to decide what its renewable energy framework should look like for the decade after 2030. For transport, the political question is simple: Does Europe want to keep depending on imported oil and fossil fuels or does it want its transport system to rely more on European electricity?
For too long, the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive has treated transport decarbonisation as a question of fuel substitution. In other words, how much petrol and diesel can be replaced by alternative fuels such as biofuels or e-fuels? But the cleanest and simplest fuel is not a fuel at all. It is electricity.
Electrification does something no liquid fuel can do. It cuts the volume of energy needed in transport in the first place, due to its energy efficiency gains. This is why prioritising direct electrification is both a climate and an energy security policy measure.
In a world where energy security has returned to the top of the political agenda, reducing energy demand and prioritising Europe’s energy autonomy should be at the heart of political negotiations. Avoiding imported barrels of oil, cutting fossil and unsustainable fuel imports and prioritising domestic electricity production should be a central objective.
