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Germany’s water footprint of transport fuels

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  • Ayres, Andrew

Abstract

Germany is required by European Union legislation to achieve a 10% mixture of renewable energy in all road transport fuels by the year 2020. This paper intends to quantify the water use impacts of Germany’s compliance with the transport fuel goal of the EU Renewables Directive. Although the stated purpose of this Directive is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector and address energy security concerns, a more encompassing analysis considering sustainable development paths must include other environmental impacts, including water resource use. The water footprint indicator can contribute to a more intelligent environmental analysis of biofuel targets, although it alone cannot attest to the sustainability of human water use. This research builds upon the results of a similar study that aimed to quantify the freshwater impacts of meeting this EU transport fuel goal across Member States. By looking more closely at the case of Germany, country-specific data can be used in the analysis that lead to different results than those reached in the previous study. Results indicate that achieving a 10% mixture of biofuels in the road transport sector could lead to a 64% increase in the water footprint of the transport fuel sector when compared to a baseline scenario of no policy implementation.

Suggested Citation

  • Ayres, Andrew, 2014. "Germany’s water footprint of transport fuels," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1746-1751.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:appene:v:113:y:2014:i:c:p:1746-1751
    DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2013.05.063
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Edgar G. Hertwich, 2005. "Consumption and Industrial Ecology," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 9(1‐2), pages 1-6, January.
    2. Havlík, Petr & Schneider, Uwe A. & Schmid, Erwin & Böttcher, Hannes & Fritz, Steffen & Skalský, Rastislav & Aoki, Kentaro & Cara, Stéphane De & Kindermann, Georg & Kraxner, Florian & Leduc, Sylvain & , 2011. "Global land-use implications of first and second generation biofuel targets," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 5690-5702, October.
    3. Edgar G. Hertwich, 2005. "Consumption and the Rebound Effect: An Industrial Ecology Perspective," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 9(1‐2), pages 85-98, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Shanshan Cao & Zhaoli He & Songmao Wang & Jinlan Niu, 2023. "Decoupling Analysis of Water Consumption and Economic Growth in Tourism in Arid Areas: Case of Xinjiang, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-21, June.
    2. Yu Zhang & Qing Tian & Huan Hu & Miao Yu, 2019. "Water Footprint of Food Consumption by Chinese Residents," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-15, October.
    3. Yu Zhang & Jin-he Zhang & Qing Tian, 2021. "Virtual Water Trade in the Service Sector: China’s Inbound Tourism as a Case Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-20, February.
    4. Ajanovic, Amela & Haas, Reinhard, 2014. "On the future prospects and limits of biofuels in Brazil, the US and EU," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 730-737.
    5. Zhong, Jia & Yu, T. Edward & Clark, Christopher D. & English, Burton C. & Larson, James A. & Cheng, Chu-Lin, 2018. "Effect of land use change for bioenergy production on feedstock cost and water quality," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 580-590.

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