Dutch government consults on changes to biofuels law

The Dutch ministry of infrastructure and water management has started a public consultation on an amendment of the domestic Energy Transport Regulation including a possible further reduction of the current 0.8 multiplier for biofuels in maritime shipping.

The draft law aims at removing barriers for the use of biofuels in inland shipping by allowing deliveries via so-called ABC transactions where three parties conclude successive agreements for the supply of the same goods, while the biofuel is directly delivered from the first supplier to the last customer, skipping the middleman such as a wholesaler.

The draft law also adds wastewater from ships collected during the cleaning of vessels after transporting biogenic oil, such as vegetable oil, to its list of advanced feedstocks that qualify for double-counting.

The ministry also said it is considering a further reduction of the multiplier applicable for advanced biofuels used in seagoing vessels as the current "extensive use" of advanced product in maritime shipping suppresses innovation in and blending of biofuels in road transport. The further lowering of the multiplier for shipping is one of the means of balancing biofuels use between road transport and sea shipping. The ministry has not specified by how much it might lower the current multiplier of 0.8.

In 2021, 19pc of all renewable fuel units (HBE) generated were advanced HBE-Gs — produced from the use of advanced biofuels — from the maritime shipping sector. This year, the Dutch emissions authority NEA issued around 7.9mn HBE-Gs in April to September, more than twice as many as a year earlier. But no data is available yet on the share from maritime shipping.

The public consultation will end on 3 November.

By Sophie Barthel