To help gasoline-powered vehicles contribute to carbon reduction and to accelerate net zero progress in the transport sector, the U.S. Grains Council and the Environment and Development Foundation held the second low carbon fuels (LCFs) seminar, part of a series on the global trend to integrate low carbon gasoline as a pathway to net-zero emissions.

Government, industry and academia experts were invited to the seminar to discuss the standards for low-carbon fuels, the demonstration project, the incentive mechanism and U.S.-Taiwan collaboration framework.

“Ethanol can provide an immediate solution of carbon reduction for the transportation sector. It can serve as a feasible transitional role in the process of vehicle electrification while cutting carbon emissions,” said Michael Lu, USGC director in Taiwan.

Among the many experts who provided insight during the seminar, USGC Ethanol Technology Consultant Rowena Torres-Ordonez represented the organization during the discussions, providing examples of ethanol use, its success in the United States and promotion recaps from the Council’s work around the world to grow ethanol use.

“It is never a one-out-of-two issue to reach net-zero by using low-carbon fuels compared to vehicle electrification,” Torres-Ordonez said during the seminar. “They can coexist while we approach zero emissions. We should think about the time before the goal of 100 percent EV sales in 2040; shouldn’t we examine other paths to decrease carbon emission?”

The Council will continue to collaborate with EDF on the ethanol seminar series and will offer another installment in November.

“According to our preliminary feedback, experts agreed that ethanol can be the carbon reduction solution to the transition to EV. They suggested one government division be the authority to set up policies related to social impacts, ethanol supply and ethanol usage. The carbon reduction of fuel vehicles is the key for the transport sector to move forward to net-zero in Taiwan. U.S. corn ethanol can play an important role in moving toward net zero,” Lu said.