NESTE OIL WELCOMES STRICT SUSTAINABILITY CRITERIA FOR BIOFUELS
The European Commission to propose a directive on the promotion of
the use of energy from renewable sources
Neste Oil welcomes the transport biofuels targets and the strict
environmental sustainability criteria for biofuels proposed by the
European Commission. Neste Oil agrees that no feedstocks should be
permitted if obtained from high-biodiversity land (forest with no
significant human intervention) or land with high carbon stock (e.g
tropical wetlands).
Neste Oil's own NExBTL renewable diesel will conform to the
sustainability criteria proposed by the Commission. It is the world's
cleanest diesel and has the potential to use a wide variety of
feedstock. Neste Oil continues to develop its next generation fuel
technology that can also use alternative non-edible feedstocks such
as wood chip.
"We believe that high standards of sustainability are essential to
the long term success of the renewable fuels industry. Renewable
fuels made from sustainable feedstocks can make an important
contribution to reducing transport CO2 emissions," says Mr Risto
Rinne, President and CEO of Neste Oil Corporation.
"Bio-feedstock producers, producing countries and users should work
towards enforceable rules that simply make unsustainable biofuels
production bad business. Sustainability should create the basis for
profitable business operations in biofuels. These ideas should be
built into legislation. The European Commission's proposal is a
positive move towards this direction," added Mr Rinne.
Neste Oil is committed to continue working with a wide group of
stakeholders in order to ensure sustainability practices and
standards over the entire life cycle of NExBTL renewable diesel
production.
Neste Oil is pleased to see that the Commission held to the targets
for increasing the usage of biofuels in the EU countries. The EU's
leadership has helped to drive standards up globally.
However, Neste Oil believes that the proposal does not yet achieve
technology neutrality for biofuels. The EU should evaluate
technologies and feedstocks based on sound science, ie. on their
efficiency and greenhouse gas balance. The EU should keep the door
open to technologies and feedstocks which do not even exist today to
encourage further innovation.
Climate change is a global problem and needs global solutions. To
meet its targets, Europe will need feedstocks and biofuels which are
produced outside Europe.
"All in all, it is reassuring that the debate is entering a more
mature stage and some of the 'silver bullet' hype is being displaced
by a more sober assessment that there will be good and bad biofuels",
said Mr Rinne.
NESTE OIL CORPORATION
Osmo Kammonen
Senior Vice President, Communications
Further information:
Jarmo Honkamaa, Deputy CEO, Neste Oil, +358 10 458 4758
Simo Honkanen, Vice President, Biodiesel Division, Neste Oil, +358
50 458 4170
About Neste Oil
Neste Oil Corporation is a refining and marketing company focused on
advanced, clean traffic fuels, with a strategy that prioritizes
growing its refining and premium-quality renewable diesel businesses.
Neste Oil's refineries are located at Porvoo and Naantali in Finland,
and have a total refining capacity of approx. 250,000 bbl/d. The
company employs around 4,800 people and its shares are listed on the
Nordic Exchange Helsinki. For further information, see
www.nesteoil.com
About NExBTL
NExBTL, produced by Neste Oil, is the cleanest renewable diesel fuel
available today. It offers significant reductions in both greenhouse
gas emissions and pollution compared to fossil diesel fuel. The
precise reductions in greenhouse gases depend on the raw materials
used in production. Tests have shown NExBTL to produce 40-60% less
CO2 throughout the whole product lifecycle. NExBTL can be used in any
blend, and it does not require modifications to the existing vehicle
pool. It can also be used 100% without blending.
