Option
The scientific opinions on eFuels are clear, but the oil and gas lobby should be kept in business. The ÖVP and other neoliberal institutions such as the WKO rely on clientele politics and further environmental destruction.
Here are the opinions of various NGOs:
Scientists4Future Austria
E-fuels are still being touted as the supposed solution for motorized private transport. In recent weeks, Chancellor Karl Nehammer, the Chancellor's Party ÖVP, and the Chamber of Commerce have also been promoting e-fuel powered cars as a solution to the climate crisis. It has long been known that e-fuels have a catastrophic energy balance.
More than half of the energy used (electricity from renewable sources) is lost during the production of e-fuels. In addition, combustion engines with an energy yield of 20-40% are extremely inefficient. Since the technology is already extremely mature and the energy yield is also subject to physical limits, no major improvements are to be expected here. Combustion engines operated with e-fuels thus make hardly more than 16% of the energy used usable.
It is much more efficient and easier to charge the renewable electricity directly into an electric car without detours. Even under real conditions, there are only minor losses and 70%-80% of the energy is used for locomotion. Depending on the example considered, e-motors are 5-7 times more efficient than combustion engines with e-fuels. Conversely, operating the car fleet with e-fuels would require 5-7 times the installed capacity of photovoltaic systems and wind turbines. In addition, electric motors do not produce any harmful exhaust gases during operation. In the future, e-fuels will be urgently needed in applications and processes (chemical industry, ships, aircraft) that cannot be easily electrified and should by no means be wasted on motorized private transport, where they are not competitive with e-motors anyway.
Sticking to the internal combustion engine for motorized individual transport is therefore a hopeless undertaking, delays the urgently needed transformation of the domestic automotive supplier industry and thus threatens Austria as a business location. Since the car industry is already switching to the production of electric vehicles, the Austrian supplier industry must react urgently in order not to fall behind.
Fact sheet on e-fuels: https://at.scientists4future.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2021/05/wiss.-Begleitbrief-final-Layout.pdf
Statement on e-fuels: https://at.scientists4future.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2021/05/Stellungnahme-synthetische-Kraftstoffe-Layout.pdf
Status of global climate research, forecasts, impact assessments, and mitigation measures: IPCC AR6 https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/
Discussion paper by the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research:
https://www.isi.fraunhofer.de/de/presse/2023/presseinfo-05-efuels-nicht-sinnvoll-fuer-pkw-und-lkw.html
Global 2000:
 GLOBAL 2000 to Chancellor Nehammer: eFuels are not a solution!Criticism of the car summit – Austria should instead invest in a comprehensive mobility turnaround.  Wien, 19.4.2023 - The Environmental protection organization GLOBAL 2000 stands together with today Fridays For Future on the occasion of the "Car Summit" convened by Chancellor Karl Nehammer in front of the Federal Chancellery and calls for an end to the fairy tales.“It seems as if the Porsche lobby has sold e-fuels to Chancellor Karl Nehammer to save the combustion engines. But the only one who still hasn't figured out the fairy tale is the chancellor himself. The population, the domestic economy and even most of the auto industry have recognized that our chancellor is clueless. He is holding on to the status quo with all his might and is thus preventing a sustainable transformation of the Austrian economy and an urgently needed turnaround in transport Viktoria Auer, climate and energy spokesperson for GLOBAL 2000. With an action in front of the Federal Chancellery, GLOBAL 2000 and Fridays For Future draw attention to how senseless today's car summit is. The environmentalists sit in suits on small bobby cars, symbolizing the Chancellor and the participants in the car lobby, who fanatically cling to their e-fuels and dream of “green combustion engines”. However, the voices from business and science are unequivocal: E-fuels have no future for the general public. If you want to power cars with e-fuels, you would need 9 times as many wind turbines as for e-cars. Austria alone could not produce the energy. E-fuels are extremely energy-intensive and therefore very expensive. In view of the current inflation, the Chancellor's behavior is completely incomprehensible. Right now Austria should build on systems and technologies that are sustainable and that people can afford. The energy crisis has shown us that we should make our energy supply more independent and not create new dependencies. This also means rethinking our mobility. The more efficiently we move, the less energy we have to generate or import. Therefore, the motto is: Public transport, cycle paths and footpaths must be expanded and promoted. And the cars that remain on the roads should be as efficient as possible - hence electric cars and no energy-intensive e-fuels. GLOBAL 2000 sharply criticizes the Federal Chancellor's car summit: It was already clear during Nehammer's “Speech on the future of the nation” that he had not recognized the great challenges of our time. As a result, there was one common demand the Alliance Restart Climate after a climate summit. But despite interview acceptance of the Chancellor to the local climate science, there has been no invitation to date. Instead, Chancellor Nehammer invites you to a car summit today. |
Greenpeace:
The environmental protection organization Greenpeace calls for the cancellation of the "car summit" announced by Chancellor Karl Nehammer for next Wednesday and the immediate convening of a "climate protection summit". "With the invitation to the 'Car Summit', climate crisis denier Nehammer once again reveals that he is on the wrong track in terms of industrial and climate policy. Instead of a backward-looking glorification of combustion engines, we need a radical turnaround in mobility. This requires a climate summit at which clever minds work on real innovations instead of chasing after technological castles in the air such as the green combustion engine," says Greenpeace Managing Director Alexander Egit.
Greenpeace also sharply criticizes Nehammer's plan to invest research money from the transformation fund in the artificial life support of combustion engines using e-fuels. “There is scientific consensus that e-fuels are at least five times more ecologically inefficient than electric vehicles. So-called "green burners" do not exist. Therefore, any further investment in e-fuels would be a serious industrial policy and ecological wrong decision," says Egit.
The transport sector alone causes a third of climate-damaging emissions in Austria. The government must therefore initiate a comprehensive turnaround in mobility, and the ban on internal combustion engines from 2035 can only be the start. Greenpeace is therefore calling for the abolition of climate-damaging subsidies, which amount to around 5,7 billion euros in tax money every year. The diesel privilege and the kerosene tax exemption must also be ended. In addition, the government is called upon to finally put a stop to particularly unfair and climate-damaging forms of mobility by banning private jets and ending ultra-short-haul flights.
Photo / Video: Shutterstock.
