A recent research by Clean Energy Canada, an initiative of the Centre for Dialogue at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, assessed the performance of Canadian biofuel regulations in reducing carbon emissions from the transport sector. The study also identified a series of actions that governments should take, in order to inform the development of policy, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector between 2020 and 2050.
Since 2005 Canada introduced blending mandates for biofuels in gasoline and diesel and the study confirmed that those policies were effective. Renewable fuel standards and low-carbon fuel standards have reduced annual carbon pollution in 2014 by 4.3 megatonnes (MT) CO2eq, equivalent to taking one million cars off the road,and grown biofuel use to 3.9 million m3, equivalent to 5% of all gasoline and diesel use in Canada. However federal and provincial governments will need to implement new and stronger policies, in order to increase the role of biofuels in the mix of measures to tackle climate change. The study has identified five principles that should help guide the future development of renewable fuel and low-carbon fuel policy.
1. Drive greenhouse gas avoidance. Cutting carbon pollution should be the main objective of renewable fuel policies. Setting specific life-cycle emissions intensity targets for each fuel and making the fuel requirements more stringent over time, could be more effective in achieving this target than simply setting volume requirements for certain fuels.
2. Support investment in low-carbon fuel production, use and innovation. The volume of advanced biofuels will have to increase significantly. In order to achieve this, biofuel policies need to send a clear and lasting signal to the market to reinforce the demand for sustainable biomass supplies, high-quality fuel production technologies, and efficient production and distribution systems.
3. Support sustainability criteria for renewable fuels. A common concern about biofuel production is that it will impact on other sustainability goals like food security and maintaining biodiversity. To mitigate this concern, governments should include sustainability criteria as part of renewable fuel standards.
4. Ensure affordability of fuel supplies. Policies should be designed to avoid extremely high compliance costs, which would translate into high fuel costs. To help keep costs reasonable, regulations can allow trading between the businesses they cover.
5. Improve compliance data reporting and transparency. In order to identify and adopt the most effective policies, transparent and consistent reporting and compliance data are of fundamental importance. Policy compliance should be reported quarterly with all fuel volumes, feedstock, carbon intensities, and estimates of carbon pollution for each fuel type.
This post is based on an article by Jeremy Moorhouse, published in Policy Options Politiques. Read the full article and download the report here.
