With this approval, Germany is following other EU countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, and Sweden where the sale of 100 percent renewable diesel at public fueling stations has long been permitted.

The approval for the sale of 100 percent renewable diesel at public fueling stations in Germany provides essential regulatory clarity for fuel manufacturers and enables fuel sellers to finally make this lower-emission fuel available to all. This is a milestone on the way towards the urgently needed defossilization of the transport sector, which requires the use of all available solutions. Companies and other organizations with private vehicle fleets and private consumers in Germany can now finally use 100 percent renewable diesel and immediately and significantly reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of their diesel vehicles, commented Jörg Hübeler, from Neste’s Renewable Products Business Development team.

By using “Neste MY Renewable Diesel”, which is made from 100 percent renewable raw materials, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be reduced by 75 percent or 95 percent over the life cycle of the fuel compared to fossil diesel.

The variation is dependent on the region-specific legislation that provides the methodology for the calculations such as the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II 2018/2001/EU for Europe and US California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) for the United States (US), and the raw material mix used to manufacture the product for each market.

Neste MY Renewable Diesel has a similar chemical composition to fossil diesel, making it a drop-in replacement that can be used neat (i.e. at 100 percent), is fully compatible with all diesel engines and the existing fuel distribution infrastructure, and is widely approved by vehicle and engine manufacturers.

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The 13 signatories support their respective member companies in successfully implementing the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which requires significant adjustments from suppliers, operators, and traders to meet its obligations.

The signatories back the EUDR’s goals and keep providing constructive feedback for developing the EUDR Information System.

However, companies involved in the pilot testing of the EUDR Information System in January 2024 have highlighted many gaps that still need to be addressed. They listed the requirements for a fully functional system for DG ENV services, echoed by the undersigned organizations on many occasions.

The last deforestation platform meeting, which took place on April 24, 2024, did not reassure the sector’s stakeholders, and the technical specifications of the Information System and the timeline for making it accessible to all operators and traders still raise serious concerns.

For these reasons, the signatories call for:

• A second round of testing with the business community;
• Making the API specifications ready as of May for business to prepare,
• Lifting the 25MB limitation or substantially increasing file size for uploading files as part of the due diligence statement;
• Accepting other data formats than the only GeoJson standard;
• Opening up the information system for all users as soon as possible and, at the very latest, beginning November 2024.

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This vote is good news for European industry and sets the tone for the next term. To achieve all our economic, climate, and energy ambitions, we need industry in Europe. This Act is the first step to making our market fit for this purpose, said NZIA Rapporteur Christian Ehler MEP (EPP, DE) on the outcome on April 25, 2024.

In a statement, Bioenergy Europe says it is “glad to see that all the technologies used for the production of energy from renewable sources, as defined in the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), are included in the definition of net-zero technologies.”

Regrets omission of CDR

By including biomass technologies, the legislator acknowledged the essential role biomass will play in ensuring the energy transition and increasing the resilience of the EU economy.

The European bioenergy sector also welcomes the inclusion of carbon capture and storage technologies (CCS) in the definition of net-zero technologies.

This makes it possible for CCS-based removal methods, such as Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) to fall within the scope of the regulation.

Nevertheless, Bioenergy Europe regrets that carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is not included in the list.

Europe is unquestionably a leader in bioenergy technologies on a worldwide scale. European companies are at the forefront of deploying cutting-edge bioenergy solutions provided by European technology pioneers. This makes bioenergy a local and sustainable solution that can greatly reduce CO₂ emissions. It is key for the EU to support the sector to scale up if the Union is to achieve net zero by 2050, said Ennio Prizzi, Bioenergy Europe Policy Officer.

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Adopted by MEPs in Strasbourg, France on April 25, 2024, NZIA will simplify the permitting process, setting maximum timelines for projects to be authorized depending on their scope and output.

The agreement provides for the creation of “Net-Zero Acceleration Valleys” initiatives, speeding up the permitting process by delegating parts of the evidence collection for environmental assessments to member states.

Sustainability and resilience criteria

National support schemes aiming to get households and consumers to move over to technologies such as solar panels and heat pumps more quickly will have to take into account sustainability and resilience criteria.

Public procurement procedures and auctions to deploy renewable energy sources should also meet such criteria, albeit under conditions to be defined by the Commission, and for a minimum of 30 percent of the volume auctioned per year in the member state, or for a maximum of six GW auctioned per year and per country.

The legislation will encourage funding from national Emission Trading System (ETS) revenues and for the most strategic projects through the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP), a step towards a European Sovereignty fund.

This vote is good news for European industry and sets the tone for the next term. To achieve all our economic, climate, and energy ambitions, we need industry in Europe. This Act is the first step to making our market fit for this purpose, said lead MEP Christian Ehler (EPP, DE).

The legislation was adopted with 361 votes to 121, with 45 abstentions, and will now have to be formally adopted by the Council to become law.

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WtW integrates the whole process of fuel production and consumption.

The biogas industry equally acclaims the additional request of the European Parliament to task the European Commission with the development of a more comprehensive procedure for calculating all transport modes’ GHG emissions based on a life-cycle approach.

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology includes emissions from the manufacturing, use, maintenance, and disposal of vehicles, and such a science-based methodology would account for all emissions across the entire transport value chain, providing a level playing field for all decarbonization solutions.

Missed opportunity

Despite this positive step, the adoption of the CO2 Emission Performance Standards for new heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs), approved the same day, represents a missed opportunity to recognize biomethane’s contribution to transport decarbonization.

The tailpipe methodology included in the proposal does not take into account the carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions savings achieved thanks to the use of renewable fuels, such as biomethane, contrary to the methodology considered in the CountEmissions EU proposal.

Biomethane, aka renewable natural gas (RNG) is a “solid and readily available solution to swiftly curb transport emissions, with the potential to even achieve negative emissions depending on the feedstock used in the production process.”

According to the EBA Statistical Report, 8.6 TWh of biomethane was used in transport in 2022, the equivalent of over 25,000 LNG trucks or 38,000 CNG trucks fuelled with biomethane annually.

Regardless of this setback, EBA acknowledges the disposition from some MEPs to assess more carefully the negative effects of the de facto ban on the registration of new Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) vehicles as of 2040 enshrined in the HDV’s adopted text. EBA is ready to cooperate with the European Parliament and European Commission in the preparation of the upcoming 2027 revision of the text so that the new proposal can have a technology-neutral approach allowing for all green solutions to speed up transport decarbonization, said Anna Venturini, Policy Manager at EBA.

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Their objective is to develop workable solutions to align with the EUDR provisions while limiting administrative burdens.

However, significant information gaps, a lack of appropriate technical solutions, and misconceptions about the value chain operations represent an obstacle at this stage.

As an integral part of the sector, Bioenergy Europe along with 21 other sector organizations have in a jointly undersigned a letter dated March 28, 2024, and addressed to Zakia Khattabi, President of the Council for Environment, Minister for the Climate, the Environment, Sustainable Development, and the Green Deal of Belgium calling for “a workable EUDR implementation.”

In particular, the signatories call on Minister Khattabi to:

• Urgently resolve legal uncertainty/lack of clarity of essential provisions Operators have been calling for practical guidance since the entry into force of the Regulation. Eight months from the implementation date, many questions are still pending and the pace with which they are addressed is too slow. Although the Commission has provided some clarity in its FAQs and upcoming guidance document, the information is still insufficient/limited. To make the implementation practically feasible, stakeholders along value chains should be included in the guidance elaboration.
• Make the Information System quickly up to operational standard              The Information System will be a key element in implementing the EUDR by operators and traders. Yet, the pilot test has revealed flows that could hinder compliance, posing unnecessary burdens for operators and traders without any added value to the Regulation goals. Moreover, the current System planning does not provide enough time to train personnel to use the System and connect the internal systems to the Information System. It is essential to include companies in the design of the system.
• Clarity on the timeline of the Country Benchmarking System                    The announcement on the Country Benchmarking System seems to imply that all countries will be classified under standard risk before the benchmarking system is ready. The sector highlights the implications of this, operators sourcing commodities in countries or regions with low or no evidence of deforestation or forest degradation will not be able to use simplified rules.

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The event – “Fueling Forward to Sustainable Energy” – focused on the use of ethanol (alcohol) for clean cooking.

In pursuing ethanol-burning stoves for household cooking that produce no soot or smoke, users can limit air-borne health risks and air pollution.

Participants included Mozambique governmental representatives from the energy, environment, and agriculture sectors, along with representatives from local fuel distributors, technology companies, national refineries, agro-industrial industries, oil and gas, finance, logistics, and transportation.

Biofuels best practice

During the event, the USGC, Pivot Clean Energy Co (Pivot), and the Mozambique Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREME) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the presence of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Xochitl Torres Small and US Ambassador Peter H. Vrooman.

Today’s conversation is critical to helping families in Mozambique use a healthier cooking fuel, which in turn provides cleaner air for everyone. Using biofuels in cooking is one of many great examples of how agriculture provides real solutions to everyday challenges. As all of us face increased disaster, drought, and other climate change impacts, USDA is committed to making a difference through viable, climate-smart practices and sharing them with partners around the globe, Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small said.

The MoU establishes a cooperative partnership to exchange technical expertise and best practices related to the biofuels industry and clean energy policy development.

Through this MoU signing, the Council supports the Mozambique government in its pursuit of ethanol blending initiatives and clean cooking development. This MoU seeks to further strengthen the relationship between biofuels experts from the United States and Mozambique governmental and private stakeholders. We offer a sincere thank you to MIREME, Pivot, the USDA’s Foreign Agriculture Service, local embassy staff, and the US Department of Commerce for their continued partnership in this endeavor, said Mohamed Salah Bouthour, USGC Deputy Regional Director – Africa at USGC.

Also discussed were topics including ethanol’s role in the global energy transition; ethanol’s contribution to greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction; the ethanol production chain; ethanol pathways for domestic production; local clean cooking initiatives and standards applications, and regional challenges and opportunities towards ethanol policy.

This partnership shows the initiative of the Mozambican government to meet the goals established in their Economic Stimulus Measures Package (PAE reforms) around biofuels development. We are pleased to see momentum gaining in this area and look forward to working with multiple parties to support solutions for clean energy in the transportation and clean cooking sectors that will have widespread benefits in many adjacent sectors, including the potential to lower carbon emissions, improve health outcomes and increase local, green jobs, said Alicia El Mamouni, Executive Director of Pivot.

Developing biofuel blending regulations

In recent months, Mozambique has discussed strategies for producing clean energy to reduce pollution and costs in the import of fossil fuels.

While the government of Mozambique has mandated that ethanol and biodiesel be blended with gasoline and diesel, it is still developing its standards and blending regulations.

A 10 percent ethanol mandate exists in Mozambique and the country has planned the development of a strong oil and agriculture economy that expects to use biofuels to facilitate this growth.

Biofuel blending reforms will reduce the country’s reliance on fuel imports and create a market for Mozambique’s large agricultural sector to meet the growing demand for biofuels.

The Council is delighted to collaborate with Mozambique and Pivot to share our experiences from the U.S. ethanol industry and provide technical assistance. This partnership will underpin the growth of the ethanol industry in Mozambique and across the region, Mohamed Salah Bouthour said.

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Once entered into force, the regulation will be the first step towards introducing a comprehensive carbon removal and soil emission reduction framework in EU legislation and contribute to the EU’s ambitious goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050, as set out in the European Climate Law.

The deal reached on February 20, 2024, is provisional, pending formal adoption by both institutions.

Scope of the regulation

The regulation will include an open definition of carbon removals in line with the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and which only covers atmospheric or biogenic carbon removals.

The Carbon Removal Certification Framework will cover the following carbon removal and emission reduction activities and differentiate between four corresponding types of units:

• permanent carbon removal (storing atmospheric or biogenic carbon for several centuries);
• temporary carbon storage in long-lasting products (such as wood-based construction products) of a duration of at least 35 years and that can be monitored on-site during the entire monitoring period;
• temporary carbon storage from carbon farming (e.g. restoring forests and soil, wetland management, seagrass meadows);
• soil emission reduction (from carbon farming) which includes carbon and nitrous oxide (NOx) reductions from soil management, and which activity must overall reduce the carbon emissions of soils or increase carbon removals from biological matter. Examples of activities are wetland management, no tilling and cover crop practices, reduced use of fertilizer combined with soil management practices, etc.

Compared to the Commission’s proposal this means an extension of the scope of the regulation to soil emission reductions.

Temporary carbon storage from carbon farming and soil emission reduction activities must last at least five years to be certified and must not lead to land being acquired for speculative purposes negatively affecting rural communities.

By 2026, the Commission will be tasked with producing a report on the feasibility of certifying activities that result in the reduction of emissions other than those related to soils (carbon and NOx).

The report will be based on a pilot certification methodology for activities that reduce agricultural emissions from enteric fermentation and manure management.

Activities that do not result in carbon removals or soil emission reductions, such as avoided deforestation or renewable energy projects, are not included in the scope of the regulation.

The co-legislators also agreed to exclude enhanced hydrocarbon recovery from the permanent carbon removal activities and to explicitly clarify that activities and operators in the marine environments are included in the scope of the regulation.

The new rules will apply to activities taking place in the EU. However, when reviewing the regulation, the Commission should consider the possibility of allowing geological carbon storage in neighbouring third countries, provided that those countries align with EU environmental and safety standards.

Certification criteria and procedure

The provisional agreement maintains the Commission proposal’s requirement that carbon removal activities need to meet four overarching criteria to be certified: quantification, additionality, long-term storage, and sustainability.

Based on these criteria, the Commission, assisted by an expert group, will develop tailored certification methodologies for different types of carbon removal activities, to ensure the correct, harmonized- and cost-effective implementation of the carbon removal criteria.

The co‑legislators have made some changes to define more precisely based on which criteria the methodologies must be developed and included a list of indications as to which activities should be prioritized.

The co-legislators agreed to maintain the key elements of the certification process and the voluntary nature of certification but included further clarification as to how the certification process works.

On sustainability for carbon farming, the co-legislators have added indications on how the sustainability objectives must be understood and have included that a carbon farming activity must always generate at least a biodiversity co-benefit, including soil health and avoidance of land degradation.

For carbon farming activities, the provisional agreement gives member states the possibility to provide advice to farmers on the application procedure and allows for synergies between the Common Agricultural Policy’s identification system for agricultural parcels (LPIS) and the information generated by the certification process under this framework.

Carbon net benefit

Carbon net benefits will generate units corresponding to one metric tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂eq) of certified net benefit generated by one of the carbon removal or soil emission reduction activities.

The co-legislators have further agreed to include that the certified units can only be used for the EU’s climate objectives and Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and must not contribute to third countries’ NDCs and international compliance schemes.

These rules, including the corresponding adjustments, will be reviewed in 2026.

Monitoring and liability

The regulation sets out clear monitoring obligations and liability rules for operators.

The negotiators agreed to distinguish between the activity period and the monitoring period (which always covers at least the activity period) and clarified that operators will be liable to address any cases of reversal (i.e. the release of CO₂ back into the atmosphere) stemming from a carbon removal activity during the monitoring period.

The agreement calls on the Commission to include clear liability mechanisms when developing the certification methodologies.

The liability mechanisms should address cases of reversal and the consequences of incomplete or interrupted monitoring and non-compliance by the operators during the monitoring period.

They may include collective buffers or accounts of carbon removal units and up-front insurance mechanisms.

EU registry

The text agreed by the co-legislators calls on the Commission to establish a common and transparent electronic EU-wide registry four years after the entry into force of the regulation to make information on the certification and units publicly available and accessible, including certificates of compliance and summaries of certification audits.

Until then, certification schemes under the framework must provide public registries based on automated and interoperable systems.

The co-legislators also introduced rules on the financing of the EU registry, which will be funded by annual fixed user fees that are proportionate to the use of the registry.

Next steps

The provisional agreement will now be submitted for endorsement to the Member States’ representatives in the Council (Coreper) and to the Parliament’s environment committee.

If approved, the text will then need to be formally adopted by both institutions, following revision by lawyer-linguists, before it can be published in the EU’s Official Journal and enter into force.

The Parliament and the Council reached an agreement that will prevent greenwashing, foster private investment in carbon removals, and develop voluntary carbon markets! Proud of this and of being the rapporteur on this!, commented Lídia Pereira, MEP (EPP PT), and rapporteur on social media.

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It is the second legal challenge from the EU renewable ethanol industry to be raised in recent months alleging discrimination in EU policymaking against RED-compliant crop-based biofuels despite their proven sustainability and benefits for emissions reduction.

In December 2023 the industry filed a similar case against the FuelEU Maritime Regulation.

The new aviation Court action comes from companies representing nearly all of the EU’s production of renewable ethanol, who are seeking to annul specific sections of the RefuelEU Aviation Regulation that exclude crop-based biofuels from the definition of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

As with the FuelEU Maritime case, this RefuelEU Aviation legislation once again jeopardies the EU’s ambitions for transport decarbonization by discriminating against RED-complaint sustainable biofuels. Renewable ethanol has a proven track record of emissions reduction and sustainability as confirmed in the Renewable Energy Directive. Instead of being excluded, it should be empowered in the Union’s interest, said David Carpintero, Director General of the European Renewable Ethanol Association (ePURE).

The legal action is based on several arguments, including among others that the European Parliament and Council committed a manifest error of assessment by contradicting available scientific and technical data in preparing their policy; and violated the principle of proportionality by effectively enacting bans on the use of RED compliant crop-based biofuels.

The legal application for annulment of RefuelEU Aviation was filed with the General Court of the European Union on January 24, 2024.

The challenge was filed by members of ePURE, the European renewable ethanol association, along with Pannonia Bio Zrt.

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To achieve this, we need to scale up our efforts. This will be done mostly by reducing emissions, but the green transition will also require the deployment of technologies to capture CO₂ and remove it from the atmosphere. This is part of the European solution space, especially for heavy industry where emissions cannot be eliminated completely. Today, we propose a new and concrete roadmap to boost and finance this technology across Europe. This strategy will create a business environment for CO₂ and help us on our journey towards net zero emissions by 2050, said Wopke Hoekstra, Commissioner for Climate Action.

In the Net-Zero Industry Act, the Commission has proposed that the EU develop at least 50 million tonnes per year of carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage capacity by 2030.

Based on the impact assessment of the EU recommended climate target for 2040, this figure will need to grow to around 280 million tonnes by 2040.

The Communication on Industrial Carbon Management sets out a comprehensive policy approach to deliver on these targets and details on how these technologies could contribute to reducing emissions by 90 percent by 2040 and reaching climate neutrality by 2050.

A European approach to industrial carbon management

The announced Industrial Carbon Management Communication follows an open public consultation conducted in 2023 and builds on the efforts already undertaken under the CCUS Forum as well as by several Member States in this area.

It identifies a set of actions to be taken at the EU and national level to enable the deployment of these technologies and the necessary infrastructure to establish a single market for CO₂ in Europe in the decades ahead.

At present, 20 Member States have included industrial carbon management solutions in their draft National Energy and Climate Plans (NCEPs).

The Commission will start preparatory work on a possible future CO₂ transport and storage regulatory package, which would consider issues such as market and cost structure, third-party access, CO₂ quality standards, or investment incentives for new infrastructure.

The Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has also published a report on the future CO₂ transport network for Europe and related investment needs.

The Commission will also assess the volumes of CO₂ that need to be removed directly from the atmosphere (industrial carbon removals) to meet the EU’s emissions reduction ambitions for 2040 and 2050 and assess overall objectives and policy measures to achieve them.

This will include an assessment of how removals and permanent storage could be accounted for under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS).

Renewables and energy efficiency remain central on the road to climate neutrality, but to reach net zero emissions we will also need technologies to remove, capture, transport, store, and use CO₂. With the strategy we present today, we want to establish a European market for CO₂. With the right support and coordination on projects and the right legal framework for CO₂ infrastructure and standards, we can support the development of these technologies in the EU. Carbon management technologies will allow us not only to cut emissions, but also to make our industry cleaner and more competitive, said Kadri Simson, Commissioner for Energy.

Permitting guidance

To help scale up the market for capture and permanent storage of CO₂ emissions, the Commission will establish guidance for project permitting processes and set up an atlas of potential storage sites.

In cooperation with the Member States, the Commission will also develop an aggregation tool for matching CO₂ suppliers with transport and storage operators and CO₂ off-takers.

The Commission aims to establish a clear carbon accounting framework for the utilization of captured CO₂ as a resource, which would reflect the climate benefits of using CO₂ as a resource in industrial processes.

This will help boost the uptake of sustainable carbon in industrial sectors.

European industry is working hard to reduce its emissions, but there are certain sectors where processes are particularly hard to adapt, and changes are costly to implement. For this reason, we need to boost innovation in technologies to capture, transport, and store carbon, to make them an effective climate solution. An acceleration of their deployment would help us meet our climate ambitions while enhancing the competitiveness of our industry, especially in times of significant geopolitical shifts. In this context, we are also stepping up our engagement with key industrial sectors but also citizens, to ensure that the transition is done in a socially fair manner, said Maroš Šefčovič, EVP for European Green Deal, Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight.

Establishing an enabling business environment for a CO₂ value chain

To make industrial carbon management projects happen on the ground, the Commission is setting out today a series of horizontal actions that could create a more attractive environment for investments.

• Investment and funding: The EU and Member States should further promote industrial carbon management projects under EU energy infrastructure programs and could consider Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs). The Commission will assess whether certain CO₂ capture projects can already be supported with market-based funding mechanisms such as competitive bidding auctions-as-a-service under the Innovation Fund.
• Research, innovation, and public awareness: The Commission will consider boosting funding for research and innovation on industrial carbon management projects through existing instruments, notably Horizon Europe and the Innovation Fund. The Commission will also support the establishment of a knowledge-sharing platform for carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS) projects. Working closely with the Member States, the Commission will raise public awareness of these technologies, including highlighting their benefits and discussing potential rewards for local communities.
• International cooperation: The Commission will accelerate work with international partners on industrial carbon management, notably on the harmonization of reporting and accounting of carbon management activities, and ensure that international carbon pricing frameworks take into account removals to address emissions in hard-to-abate sectors.

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