Industry welcomes cabinet draft on greenhouse gas quotas and calls for ambitious, holistic fuel strategy

The 23rd International Conference “Fuels of the Future 2026 – Turbocharge, Take Off with Renewables” came to a successful close yesterday in Berlin. More than 620 experts from politics, business, science, and associations took advantage of the two-day event to discuss the role of renewable fuels in climate-neutral mobility and to identify specific actions needed to ramp up the market.

In addition to Federal Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder's presentation of the federal government's ideas for climate-friendly mobility, the first day of the conference focused primarily on the political, regulatory, and economic framework conditions for the increased use of renewable fuels. Discussions covered current developments in the national implementation of RED III, from the further development of the greenhouse gas quota to certification requirements, fraud prevention, and investment security. Industry representatives welcomed the German government's cabinet decision on the further development of the greenhouse gas quota. They said it provided important impetus for investment and strengthened fraud prevention. However, they added that the upper limit for sustainable biofuels from cultivated biomass needed to be raised in order to exploit the existing potential of biofuels. In addition, climate protection requires higher blends of bioethanol and biodiesel in the short term in order to maintain the climate protection contribution of biofuels despite declining fuel consumption. This requires greater flexibility in existing protection regulations for gasoline and diesel.

There was agreement among the conference participants that sustainable biofuels are already making a decisive contribution to short-term greenhouse gas reduction and are indispensable as an immediately available solution for existing vehicle fleets and infrastructures. In addition, the market ramp-up of advanced biofuels and synthetic fuels must be accelerated. This requires technology-neutral instruments such as the crediting of renewable fuels toward CO2 fleet limits and reliable long-term quota regulations.

At the end of the conference, the industry drew a positive conclusion. The technical solutions are available and have been tried and tested in practice – now it is a matter of shaping the political and regulatory framework in such a way that further investment is encouraged and higher proportions of renewable fuels can actually be brought onto the market. The “Fuels of the Future” conference thus once again confirmed its role as a central dialogue platform for technology-neutral, climate-friendly mobility and as a source of inspiration for politics and business.

The 24th International Conference for Renewable Mobility “Fuels of the Future 2027” will take place on January 18 and 19, 2027, at the CityCube in Berlin. For more information, please visit: www.fuels-of-the-future.com/en