EU fuel quality rules too weak to change oil industry practices; now governments need to act

Carbon Market Watch and Transport & Environment critique the EU's guidelines on Upstream Emission Reductions (UERs), stating they are too weak to force the oil industry to change practices due to loopholes regarding carbon offsets and double counting. While the Fuel Quality Directive requires a 6% carbon footprint reduction by 2020 compared to 2010, the authors argue that national governments must now make the guidelines legally binding and limit eligible savings to Clean Development Mechanism projects in Least Developed Countries to ensure transparency and additionality.

• The European Commission's guidelines for reducing emissions 'upstream' from oil refineries are considered inadequate because they allow for questionable carbon offsets and lack strong measures to prevent the same emission reductions from being counted multiple times.
• Under the EU Fuel Quality Directive, fuel suppliers are required to lower the carbon footprint of their products by 6% by 2020 relative to 2010 levels, with the option to include upstream emission reductions such as the reduction of flaring and venting.
• Current guidelines restrict the use of offset credits from Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI) projects started after 2012 to those located in 'Least Developed Countries', which excludes projects in countries like Russia that have weak safeguards on additionality.

APA

Amaral, K. (2016). EU fuel quality rules too weak to change oil industry practices; now governments need to act. Carbon Market Watch. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2016/12/01/press-statement-eu-fuel-quality-rules-too-weak-to-change-oil-industry-practices-now-governments-need-to-act/

Chicago

Amaral, Kaisa. EU fuel quality rules too weak to change oil industry practices; now governments need to act. Carbon Market Watch, 2016. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2016/12/01/press-statement-eu-fuel-quality-rules-too-weak-to-change-oil-industry-practices-now-governments-need-to-act/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=Amaral |first1=Kaisa |title=EU fuel quality rules too weak to change oil industry practices; now governments need to act |publisher=Carbon Market Watch |date=1 December 2016 |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2016/12/01/press-statement-eu-fuel-quality-rules-too-weak-to-change-oil-industry-practices-now-governments-need-to-act/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{amaral2016fuel, author = {Amaral, Kaisa}, title = {{EU fuel quality rules too weak to change oil industry practices; now governments need to act}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, year = {2016}, month = dec, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/2016/12/01/press-statement-eu-fuel-quality-rules-too-weak-to-change-oil-industry-practices-now-governments-need-to-act/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }