Lubricants Industry Pushes for Recognition of Avoided Emissions

Europe’s two main lubricants associations, ATIEL (Technical Association of the European Lubricants Industry) and UEIL (Union of the European Lubricants Industry), have jointly requested that standard-setters recognize the emissions savings delivered by high-performance lubricants used within existing fossil-fueled equipment. Downstream Working Group published a position paper addressing avoided emissions and handprint methodologies, emphasizing the need for robust, transparent, and scientifically credible standards that reflect real-world climate benefits.

The paper clarifies key distinctions between environmental concepts. A handprint encompasses broad positive environmental outcomes, including reduced equipment wear, longer asset life, extended fluid service intervals, improved circularity, and reduced waste across internal combustion engines, hybrids, and electric powertrains. In contrast, avoided emissions are strictly defined as quantified greenhouse gas reductions calculated against a clear reference scenario using conservative assumptions, traceable data, transparent methods, and well-defined system boundaries.

The central issue highlighted by the associations involves the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Guidance on Avoided Emissions v2.0, published in July 2025. The second eligibility gate of this framework requires solutions to be climate-aligned technologies, which effectively excludes efficiency gains in legacy or fossil-based systems because they are considered transitional. The associations argue that this requirement overlooks immediate, measurable decarbonization opportunities across existing global transport and industrial equipment. Furthermore, gate criteria designed for system-level or asset-based technologies do not fit high-volume, dispersed product categories like lubricants, where demonstrating the absence of scalable alternatives, tracing monitoring data, and aligning with transition plans present unique hurdles.

Friction-related energy losses account for approximately 20% to 30% of global primary energy demand, and tribological improvements can reduce these losses by 30% to 40% under specific operating conditions. Within the European Union, this represents a potential reduction of tens of millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.

To address these limitations, the paper outlines key recommendations and guiding principles. Frameworks should recognize efficiency gains in legacy systems whenever emissions reductions are measurable and verifiable, regardless of fuel type or equipment age. Lubricants and greases should be recognized as efficiency enablers rather than energy carriers or combustion fuels. The guidance criteria ought to be adapted for high-volume, dispersed products, dedicated sector-specific methodologies should be explored, and regional approaches must be harmonized to avoid market fragmentation. Key guiding principles include data transparency, baseline conservatism, application-specific testing, and alignment with established standards such as the GHG Protocol, CSRD, the Green Claims Directive, and ISO frameworks. Finally, ATIEL and UEIL emphasize that avoided emissions reporting should complement, rather than replace, traditional Scope 1, 2, and 3 corporate greenhouse gas accounting. The detailed article is published by https://www.fuelsandlubes.com/ can be accessed from https://www.fuelsandlubes.com/lubricants-sector-seeks-credit-for-avoided-emissions/