21
May
2026
Watch
Need for an adaptation of the EU legal framework on sustainable biofuels (debate)
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen. For most of us in the room, one thing should be clear: Petroleum fuel is not the future. But honestly: In many cases, it cannot be biofuels. For production, we are talking about disappearing forests, about habitats that are being destroyed, about animals and entire animal species that are being displaced, injured or killed because their homeland is being sacrificed for monocultures and fuel cultivation; A large load of pesticides is usually still on top of it. For Germany, the Fraunhofer Institute comes to a very clear judgment, colleague Paulus has just mentioned it to some extent: If the annual yield of a one-hectare rapeseed field is taken as a basis, a diesel combustion vehicle can travel around 32,000 kilometres. If you use the same area for a PV system, a battery-electric vehicle travels around 6 million kilometers. This is 190 times higher. On the sidelines, let me say: This is exactly the same nonsense, if you feed plants to animals first, then eat the animals, and not eat the plants immediately. Therefore: A fuel is not automatically sustainable just because it does not come from oil.