The market for fuels and vehicles is increasingly global and understanding what is happening around the world can enhance long-term strategic planning. As automakers increasingly seek to harmonize their vehicle production plans and governments seek best practices to achieve their specific objectives, regulations that may seem distant to some markets can still have significant influence. For markets that have not yet acted to address these issues, it may only be a matter of time before regulators will likely look to other nations for ideas. That’s one of the key themes behind “Global Initiatives: Assessing Current and Future Global Initiatives on Fuels and Vehicles,” released by the Fuels Institute and prepared by yours truly.
By 2040, the world population is expected to expand nearly 25% to 9.1 billion and the global car fleet is expected to double. With such extraordinary growth on the horizon, it is not surprising governments around the world are increasingly announcing and/or implementing initiatives to tighten fuel economy and emissions standards, set zero emission vehicle targets, mandate more blending of biofuels, ban or otherwise limit driving and improve overall fuel quality. The need to mitigate air pollution, GHG emissions, congestion as well as implementing the Paris Agreement targets, is driving these global initiatives and will continue to do so as I have highlighted in this blog, and in depth for clients and Future Fuels Outlook members. According to my analysis in the report:
Almost 60 countries have developed or will be developing biofuels programs such as blend mandates and fiscal incentives.
Tammy Klein is a consultant and strategic advisor providing market and policy intelligence and analysis on transportation fuels to the auto and oil industries, governments, and NGOs. She writes and advises on petroleum fuels, biofuels, alternative fuels, automotive fuels, and fuels policy.