Commission targets tar sands

The European Commission has proposed a higher carbon-emissions value for oil from tar sands than for other sources of fossil fuel.

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The decision has to be approved by EU member states. If that happens, it will put added pressure on fuel suppliers to reduce their carbon footprint.

Yesterday (3 October), the Commission adopted a proposal for greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions values for different sources of fossil fuel as part of the fuel quality directive. It proposed a GHG emission value for oil from tar sands of 107 grammes of CO2 per megajoule of energy produced. The default value for conventional crude is 87.5g CO2/mj. The Commission proposed a value of 131.3g CO2/mj for shale oil and 172g for liquefied coal.

The fuel quality directive requires fuel suppliers to reduce the carbon footprint of fuel by 6% six over the next ten years.

The move to assign a higher GHG value to oil from tar sands has been strongly opposed by the Canadian government. The EU imports very little oil from tar sands directly from Canada but the Canadian government fears that assigning a higher value to oil from tar sands might put off other buyers of Canadian oil. Some oil from tar sands is mixed with other sources and exported to the EU.