CLEPA urges full recognition of renewable fuels in EU CO₂ rules

CLEPA, the European Association of Automotive Suppliers, has joined 29 other industry signatories in calling on the European Commission to revise the EU’s CO₂ standards for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles to formally recognise renewable fuels alongside electrification. While supporting electric mobility as the main pathway to decarbonisation, the statement stresses that excluding renewable fuels from CO₂ rules risks slowing investment and undermining climate objectives.

Key proposals include allowing renewable fuels to count toward CO₂ reductions in new vehicles, introducing a Carbon Correction Factor to reflect their growing share in the EU fuel mix, and classifying vehicles running exclusively on renewable fuels as zero-emission – enabling market entry before 2030. The signatories also call for a unified EU definition of “renewable fuel” and a long-term trajectory for steadily increasing CO₂-reduction requirements.

The statement underlines that these measures are critical to create regulatory certainty, stimulate investment, and scale up renewable fuel production across Europe. Integrating renewable fuels into the CO₂ regulation for light-duty vehicles is essential not only to achieve Europe’s climate targets efficiently, but also to strengthen innovation, industrial capacity, and competitiveness across the automotive supply sector.