Yesterday, the Renewable and Low-Carbon Fuels Value Chain Industrial Alliance (RLCF Alliance) and the Directorate-General Mobility and Transport of the European Commission (DG MOVE) co-organised the event ´´Fuelling Change: how the EU is decarbonizing Seas and Skies´´, which took place at the European Parliament in Brussels. The event was co-hosted by MEP José Ramón Bauzá and MEP Marian-Jean Marinescu and was intended to reflect the implementation of the EU Regulations on Refuel Aviation and FuelEU Maritime.

Concerning the speakers, the event was attended by the following panelists:   (i) Filip Alexandru Negreanu Arboreanu (Head of Cabinet of Commissioner for Mobility and Transport), (ii) Julien Rossi (Head of European Union Representation office, Safran), (iii) Caterina Cobino (Head of Special Projects and Partnerships of Fincantieri), (iv) Nathalie Stubler (Chief Sustainability Officer of Safran), (v) Alessandro Bartelloni (Director FuelsEurope), (vi) Darko Levicar (Chief Strategy and Communications Officer Hydrogen Europe), (vii) Pietro Fiocchi (Member of the European Parliament), (viii), Jossianne Cutajar (Member of the European Parliament), and (ix) Moumen Hamdouch (Head of Unit Sustainable and Intelligent Transport).

The discussion focused on the challenges and opportunities for the European industry as well as the steps needed to progressively move away from fossil sources to achieve the EU long-term decarbonisation objective, while ensuring an effective and timely energy transition and competitiveness.

• Update on RLCF in maritime and aviation

Julien Rossi explained that the ultimate objective of the Alliance is to ensure that aviation and waterbone transport have sufficient access to renewable and low carbon fuels, while taking into account the future use of these fuels in road transport, and thus contribute to the reduction in the transport sector´s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 90 percent by 2050. He also defined the objectives for 2024, which are as follows:

• Priority fuels and value chain assessment: for this purpose, RCLF will identify economically and environmentally suitable transport fuels for scaling up, evaluate strong and weak points of the value chain, and assess the investment needs.
• Enabling conditions gap analysis: it is important to identify the gaps in standardization and safety assessment, as well as to inform about relevant policy debates.
• Funding guide: identify existing financing opportunities and drawing conclusions on their suitability.
• Investment pipeline: creating a pipeline of investment projects based on prioritization, paying attention to compatibility with low and zero-emission mobility.
• Creating synergies: with different transport modes.

The objectives set up above will be reached through the following strategies:

• Think operational: contribute with concrete actions to increasing sustainable fuels production capacities in Europe.
• Unite: bring together key stakeholders from across the value chain.
• Pool expertise: Use the available expertise of the members to assess and propose concrete instruments to support project leaders and investors.
• Share: share knowledge and disseminate for a better understanding of the emerging RLCF markets.

• Renewable and Low-Carbon Fuels Value Chain Industrial Alliance

The European Commission also presented the state of play of the Renewable and Low-Carbon Fuels Value Chain Industrial Alliance, as a key flanking measure to the FuelEU Maritime and ReFuelEU Aviation Regulation initiatives. Focusing on boosting production and supply of renewable and low-carbon fuels in the aviation and maritime sectors, the Alliance recently launched the call to members for inclusion of their renewable and low-carbon fuels projects into the RLCF Alliance project pipeline.