In a statement, ESWET says that it welcomes the Commission's RePowerEU Plan presented on May 18, 2022, which "rightfully supports the use of non-recyclable biogenic waste for sustainable energy production in Europe."
According to ESWET, waste-to-energy (WtE) secures local non-intermittent baseload energy to industries, homes, and municipalities, thus responding today to the major EU energy crisis while providing a public service by the safe treatment of non-recyclable waste.
Oddly enough, with the opinion given on May 17, 2022, ENVI took the opposite path by proposing to discard useful biomass from non-recyclable waste in the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). This proposal risks incentivizing harmful landfilling of residual waste and would result in burying energy that is essential to move Europe away from importing natural gas, said Patrick Clerens, Secretary-General of ESWET.
Already today, waste-to-energy provides the equivalent energy of 9 percent of Russian gas imports, and by 2035, the share could rise to 12.5 percent while still meeting the circular economy targets.
The decision now belongs to the ITRE Committee to safeguard the definition of biomass in the RED and acknowledge the renewable energy feature of Waste-to-Energy. The European Commission recognizes the virtue of valorizing non-recyclable waste to respond to energy insecurity in Europe. On the other hand, we are astonished by the ENVI Committee’s vote on the revision of the RED, which is proposing to reduce access to renewable energy for European consumers, said Patrick Clerens.
The upcoming votes on the RED in the European Parliament and the European Council are a good opportunity for the EU legislators to align in favour of securing local energy supply for the benefit of European citizens.
