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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The European Commission
is drawing up targets for airlines to use a minimum share of sustainable fuels,
it said last Wednesday, after dropping a draft 5% goal that it deemed too
low, reported Reuters.
The pledge
came as the EU executive outlined measures to tackle transport's climate impact,
including a goal previously reported by Reuters to have 30 million zero-emission
vehicles on Europe's roads by 2030.
A late draft had included the 5%
share of low-carbon fuels to be reached by airlines in 2030, rising to above 60%
in 2050. Both targets were cut from the published version.
EU climate
chief Frans Timmermans said the Commission now intended to set higher goals for
sustainable aviation fuel.
"We will come out with an ambitious proposal
later, because we thought we could do better than what was written in the
initial draft," Timmermans said.
Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), which
can be produced from biomass or renewable energy, currently account for less
than 1% of Europe's jet fuel consumption.
Their uptake has been stunted
by high costs and weak demand from airlines, which have traditionally opposed
mandated quotas. The industry's position is, however, evolving amid increasing
scrutiny of its environmental impact.
"The EU proposal for a SAF mandate
could, under certain conditions, be a positive development in providing a degree
of certainty to the market and driving production," said Michael Gill, head of
ATAG, a global aviation sector lobby group.
Those conditions include
policy support for SAF development and avoiding anti-competitive effects, Gill
said.
Finland, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden are among
European states already considering their own binding targets.
The EU
plan would also seek to make transport services carbon-neutral for journeys
under 500 kms (310 miles), encouraging a shift from air to
rail.
Campaigners such as clean energy group Transport and Environment
urged the EU to promote hydrogen produced with renewable energy over biofuels
that can worsen deforestation.
Brussels also wants zero-emission large
aircraft to be market-ready by 2035, a deadline Airbus has set itself to put a
carbon-free plane into service.
As MRC informed before,
ExxonMobil said in mid-December it plans further reductions in greenhouse
gas emissions over the next five years to support the goals of the Paris
Agreement and anticipates meeting year-end 2020 reductions. ExxonMobil plans to
reduce the intensity of operated upstream greenhouse gas emissions by 15% to 20%
by 2025, compared to 2016 levels. This will be supported by a 40% to 50%
decrease in methane intensity, and a 35% to 45% decrease in flaring intensity
across its global operations. The emission reduction plans, which cover Scope 1
and Scope 2 emissions from operated assets, are projected to be consistent with
the goals of the Paris Agreement. The company also plans to align with the World
Bank’s initiative to eliminate routine flaring by 2030.
We remind that
ExxonMobil underttook a planned shutdown at its
cracker in Singapore. The company halted operations at the cracker for
maintenance on September 14, 2020. The cracker was expected to remain off-line
till end-October, 2020. Located at Jurong Island, Singapore, the cracker has an
ethylene production capacity of 1 million mt/year and a propylene production
capacity of 450,000 mt/year.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for
producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,760,950 tonnes in the first ten
months of 2020, up by 3% year on year. Only high density polyethylene (HDPE) and
linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments increased. At the same time,
PP shipments to the Russian market reached 978,870 tonnes in
January-October 2020 (calculated using the formula: production minus exports
plus imports minus producers' inventories as of 1 January, 2020). Supply of
exclusively of PP random copolymer increased. |
