Biofuels certification bodies gear up ahead of RED II

Biofuel certification schemes are accelerating procedures ahead of Europe's Renewable Energy Directive (RED) II coming into effect next year.

The European Commission has published a revised assessment protocol for the re-recognition of voluntary schemes that must be implemented by the time RED II is transposed into national legislation on 30 June 2021.

The International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) has already put several measures in place but was waiting on further clarification from the commission on others, it said at its stakeholder meeting this week.

Among the amendments already implemented by the ISCC are requiring feedstock collection points to submit a list of all the points of origin that have signed a self-declaration to the auditor, to verify the existence of a sample of these points of origin prior to the audit.

Mandatory surveillance audits are now also the norm six months after initial certification. For collection points and trading firms that deal with waste and residues and with virgin materials, surveillance audits will be done three months after the first certification audit.

Actions in progress include an EU-wide database due by next year, enabling auditors to double check and verify deliveries with suppliers and recipients and an update of the ISCC terms of use. Industry participants also asked for greater co-ordination and transparency between voluntary schemes to prevent bad actors from simply switching from one certification body to another.

The ISCC is awaiting further clarification in an implementing act from the commission before pushing through further changes. Included is a possible lowering of the threshold for points of origin to be audited based on a sample below the current 10 t/m standard. This was not met with great enthusiasm from stakeholders fearing the costs, time and manpower required will increase.

The ISCC also suggested enabling double checks on proofs of sustainability to ensure what was provided by upstream suppliers correlates with what was received by downstream buyers. While the proposal was met with widespread support at the meeting, further specification is needed from the commission and reliable testing methods need to be developed.

Pressure has been put on voluntary schemes and certification bodies to increase and enhance scrutiny because of recent fraud allegations, particularly for waste and residue feedstocks emanating outside the EU. But auditors and industry participants stressed there remains a need to balance rigorous testing and credibility of the schemes with what is manageable and cost effective.

Both sides also complained of individual national systems, such as the Italian national standard, on top of the region-wide RED II adding to the layers of bureaucracy and complexity of compliance.

By Amandeep Parmar