What the Future of the Renewable Energy Directive Should Look Like

Transport & Environment (T&E) has outlined a comprehensive vision for the future of the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) beyond 2030, emphasising its critical role in tackling Europe’s transport emissions and achieving climate neutrality. With transport emissions having plateaued in 2025, largely due to stagnation in car emissions and rising aviation emissions offsetting gains in shipping, T&E stresses the urgency of strengthening the renewable energy framework to reduce fossil fuel dependence and enhance energy security. The organisation advocates for the RED to remain the cornerstone of the EU’s Energy Union, with a binding renewable energy target for 2040 to accelerate decarbonisation and reduce reliance on energy imports. Key recommendations from T&E include maintaining the RED’s sectoral approach, which sets clear targets across transport, industry, heating, cooling, and buildings, thereby providing transparent and consistent pathways for decarbonisation. The organisation highlights the importance of maximising renewable electricity’s role as a transport fuel across all modes, while reserving sustainable liquid fuels primarily for aviation and shipping. Additionally, T&E calls for the expansion and mandatory application of the current crediting mechanism across all transport sectors to ensure robust incentives for renewable energy uptake. T&E also proposes a phase-out of first-generation biofuels derived from food and feed crops, citing concerns over food security and land use changes. The directive should tighten sustainability criteria to exclude feedstocks with high risks of fraud or environmental harm, aligning with existing CO2 regulations for aviation, shipping, and cars. The organisation further recommends prioritising renewable hydrogen and e-fuels for hard-to-abate sectors like aviation and shipping through binding targets, while excluding low-carbon hydrogen from renewable transport quotas to maintain the integrity of renewable energy goals. The implications of these proposals suggest a more ambitious, targeted, and sustainability-focused approach to renewable energy policy in the EU, particularly in the transport sector, which remains a major challenge for climate action. By reinforcing the RED’s framework and introducing stricter sustainability safeguards, the EU could enhance its energy independence and industrial resilience while steering the continent towards its climate commitments. The next phase of the directive will be crucial in setting the course for Europe’s energy transition in the decades ahead.