In the Environment Committee (ENVI) on Tuesday 9 April, MEPs will vote on the Parliament’s objection to the European Commission’s delegated act as regards adding feedstock for the production of biofuels and biogas, aimed at Annex IX of the Renewable Energy Directive (see EUROPE 13377/12).
While the drafting of this objection does not appear to have encountered any major difficulties with the Greens/EFA, S&D, Renew Europe, The Left and EPP co-rapporteurs, a parliamentary source nevertheless told Agence Europe that he did not expect the objection to obtain a sufficient majority.
According to S&D rapporteur Tiemo Wölken (German), “the European Commission has exceeded its powers” by differentiating between “advanced” and “mature” biofuels on the basis of end use (aviation (part A) versus road and sea transport (part B)), as opposed to differentiation by feedstock.
He says that the decision to group feedstock in part A or part B of the annex should be taken on the basis of technological development and not commercial practice.
For example, the Commission argues that there are not enough commercial-scale projects to produce aviation fuels from ‘intermediate’ crops such as ‘catch- and cover’ crops.
However, the rapporteurs mention that these crops can be transformed using hydrotreatment or HEFA, which is considered by the Commission’s 2022 final report on the assessment of the potential for new feedstocks for the production of advanced biofuels to be a “mature” technology.
The MEPs also point out that, according to the same study, cultivation on “seriously degraded” land carries a high risk of fraud, as the definition is not uniform from one region to another, even within the EU.
“This situation is exacerbated by the fact that more severely degraded land is available outside the EU, with imports posing a greater challenge for monitoring”, says Mr Wölken.
The rapporteurs also deplore the “broad” and “incorrect” designation of ‘intermediate’ crops and the risk of additional demand for land and market distortion.
Finally, in more general terms, several MEPs supporting the objection criticise the Commission for moving away from the priority given to genuinely sustainable biofuels, for example those produced from waste and residues.
To see the delegated act: https://aeur.eu/f/bnn (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)