Biodiesel - Biodiesel study for railways
Overview
Background & policy context:
The International Union of Railways (UIC) plans to hold a workshop on biofuels in July 2007. To provide background information for this workshop, UIC commissioned ATOC to produce a study on ‘Railways and biofuels to identify experience with the use of biofuels on the railways of selected European and other countries.
Objectives:
The objective of the project is to prepare a background information for workshop on biofuels.
In the EU, the main policy instrument to promote the use of biofuels by transport is the biofuels Directive (Directive 2003/30/EC), which is arguably the most important instrument in the world that has stimulated the recent increases in the production of biodiesel.
Even though the Directive does not explicitly prefer one biofuel to another, the use of biodiesel in the EU has increased as a result of the Directive, more than the use of bioethanol. Although the Directive does not set legally binding, i.e. mandatory, targets, it does require Member States to set national targets for the introduction of biofuels and proposes ‘reference values’ that the Member States should take into account.
Methodology:
The project’s methodology included a review of literature and internet-based sources, such as the websites of relevant organizations, and a survey of UIC members. The literature review included documentation supplied by ATOC, as well as documents and information supplied by or obtained from other stakeholders, such as the IEA and the European biodiesel Board.
The survey of UIC members was based on a questionnaire that was circulated to selected operating companies in EU Member States, as well as those in a number of other European countries and countries elsewhere in the world.
Of these, ATOC identified fifteen key countries that should be the focus of the work, seven of which are EU Member States. The questionnaire was drafted by AEA and subsequently finalized by taking into account comments from ATOC and UIC. Where questionnaire responses were not received from key countries, interviews with relevant stakeholders were undertaken to obtain the necessary information.
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