FUELSEUROPE SUPPORTS THE GRAND PRIX DE PAU TO PROMOTE THE ROLE AND USE OF LOW-CARBON TECHNOLOGIES, IN PARTICULAR LOW-CARBON LIQUID FUELS

Pau, 31 January 2022: For the 2022 edition of the PAU MOTORS FESTIVAL, the city of Pau (France), under the leadership of its Mayor François Bayrou and the Pau Béarn Pyrénées Urban Community, will propose an innovative and ambitious concept for this historical event by exclusively showcasing races powered by low-carbon technologies, such as electricity, hydrogen and low-carbon liquid fuels. FuelsEurope formed a consortium which includes Repsol, Aramco and TotalEnergies, to support this initiative aimed at demonstrating the potential benefits of these low-carbon technologies and promoting their use towards citizens and consumers.

The city of Pau has the ambition to be in line with the EU’s 2050 climate objective and decided to do its share by reaching climate neutrality by 2040. City authorities, therefore, opted to resume their historic race, the Grand Prix de Pau, with the forward-looking objective of reducing the carbon footprint of the event by the use of low-carbon technologies for all of the races.

“The availability and benefits of low-carbon liquid fuels are ignored by a vast majority of drivers and citizens. The Grand Prix de Pau is a unique opportunity to showcase what are low-carbon fuels and how easily they can be used in existing and new vehicles without any technical modifications”, explained Alain Mathuren, Communication Director at FuelsEurope.

Alain Mathuren commented “the use of low-carbon fuels can reduce by up to 80-90% and more of CO₂ emissions in the transport sector compared to conventional diesel or gasoline. Low-carbon liquid fuels are the most efficient way to cut emissions from vehicles with an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), enabling so the 200 million ICE vehicles that will be on the road after 2030 to progressively become low-carbon and allowing the optimization of the implementation plan of infrastructures for electricity and hydrogen.”

These low-carbon fuels will also address the needs of those citizens who don’t have the means to purchase new vehicles and are dependent on the second-hand market for their next car. Alain Mathuren stressed “these users should also be offered the opportunity to reduce their CO₂ footprint by increased use of low-carbon liquid fuels in their ICE vehicles. No one should be left behind, and access to affordable mobility should be protected as one of the fundamental rights of all citizens.”

FuelsEurope and its collaborators, including Repsol, Aramco, TotalEnergies are actively involved in the transition to a low-carbon future for the EU and are willing to raise awareness about the role of low-carbon liquid fuels. Each of the consortium members and FuelsEurope’s members are developing low-carbon projects and significantly investing in low-carbon technologies.

The European refining industry is undergoing a transformation which, based on the strategy “Clean Fuels for All” developed by FuelsEurope and its members, could enable the production of up to 160Mtoe of low-carbon liquid by 2050. This represents around 40% of the European demand for fuels in transport (362 Mtoe in 2017). It demonstrates the European refining industry’s strong potential in contributing towards achieving Europe’s target of climate neutrality in transport by 2050.

Decarbonising the transport sector will require all technologies to collectively contribute, and low-carbon fuels have a major role to play. This is what the Grand Prix de Pau will demonstrate.