Renewable Fuels for Agricultural Machinery - Why we need a scalable, legally certain and economically viable path to food, energy and strategic security
European farmers face multiple simultaneous structural challenges: climate change, labour shortages, energy security, and pressure on economic margins. Any energy transition must be grounded in realistic, economically viable solutions that maintain agricultural productivity, food security, and energy resilience.
In this position paper, CEMA sets out the conditions for a successful transition. In the near- and medium-term, a key solution will remain the use of internal combustion engines powered by renewable and low-carbon fuels, enabling significant COâ‚‚ reductions.
More broadly, CEMA supports a pragmatic, technology-neutral approach to deliver climate objectives while safeguarding the competitiveness, resilience, and strategic autonomy of European agriculture.
CEMA calls on EU policymakers to:
- Respect the economic reality of farmers and prioritise scalable, cost-effective energy solutions compatible with existing machinery, particularly sustainable biomass fuels from circular agriculture.
- Establish a stable and coherent policy framework for renewable fuels that enables long-term investments (10+ years), with clear rules, aligned EU and national legislation, and credible incentives.
- Ensure real market uptake of renewable fuels by removing regulatory bottlenecks, including caps and certification barriers, and by enabling practical implementation of RED provisions, notably for intermediate crops and crop-based biomass fuels.
Read the full position paper below.
