German biofuels sector warns on RED II uncertainty

Certification companies active in Germany's biofuels sector have lamented a lack of progress from the EU in laying down detailed rules for the recast Renewable Energy Directive (RED II), which came into force in December 2018.

The implementation of RED II by member states will come via integrated national energy and climate plans (NECPs) to be submitted by 31 December. First drafts of the NECPs were submitted by member states in June.

The European Commission has responded to these drafts, stating that more effort was needed in providing "stronger ambition, policy detail, better specified investment needs, or more work on social fairness".

But, according to international sustainability certification provider ISCC, more detail is required at an EU level.

"We have seen absolutely nothing in the past few months," ISCC managing director Andreas Feige recently told an industry conference in Berlin. "Perhaps in the first quarter of 2020 some signs will come from the commission that certification can now start."

Member states will implement RED II by 30 June 2021. The recast directive legislates for a rise in renewable fuels in transport to 14pc by 2030 — from 10pc in 2020 — but sets limits for biofuels with an associated high risk of indirect land use change (Iluc), which it defines as those produced from food and feed crops associated with expansion into areas of high-carbon stock. The directive also introduces an exemption for biofuels certified as low Iluc-risk. It is this definition that certification companies are having particular difficulty in preparing for, according to Feige.

RED II states that biofuels should be considered low Iluc-risk only if the feedstock used for their production is cultivated to increase output "beyond gains that would be achieved in a business-as-usual scenario". But such additional feedstock should adhere to measures that are "financially attractive".

These so-called additionality measures offer "a large amount of discretionary scope", according to Feige, with room for misinterpretation of what constitutes "degraded" land under RED II, while the definition of a "smallholder" is relative and can quickly change.

According to the EU legislation, "severely degraded land" applies to land that for a significant period of time has either been salinated or presented low organic-matter content and has been severely eroded. Under the legislation, a smallholder constitutes independent small farms with holdings below two hectares.

As long as the commission is not more specific about what constitute low Iluc-criteria, the potential for low Iluc-risk cannot be assessed, Feige said, and he warned that the implementation of RED II by mid-2021 will have a bearing on that year's harvest.

While limits to high Iluc-risk biofuels consist of a freeze at 2019 levels for the period 2021-23, these will gradually decrease from the end of 2023 to zero by 2030. In any case, it is unlikely that the necessary data will be available to prove that the criteria are met, Feige said.

"You cannot certify on this basis," he said, adding that pilot projects would have to provide some guidance. Such projects would also help with a review of RED II set by a clause in the legislation for 2023.

Certification firm Redcert managing director Peter Juergens agreed. Redcert works with a Cologne-based Global Risk Assessment Services' (Gras) tool to help verify the status of the land under question, through satellite and other remote sensing data.

"Formulations crop up [in RED II] that definitely leave room for interpretation," he told the Berlin conference.

An EU-wide database stipulated by the RED II, intended to guarantee the traceability of liquid and gaseous biofuels, also raises questions, according to Juergens.

It is unclear if this database will be set up from scratch, or if it will be based on an interlinking of national or private databases, he said. He touted the German federal office for food and agriculture (BLE) report and corresponding database — Nabisy — as a model for the future pan-EU database.

By Chloe Jardine and John Houghton-Brown