AGRI Draft Opinion on EU Deforestation Regulation

The Agriculture and Rural Development Committee published its draft opinion on the proposal for a regulation on commodities and products associated with deforestation and forest degradation. In the draft opinion, the rapporteur, Mazaly Aguilar (ECR, ES) proposed removing “soya” from the list of relevant commodities and adding “cane sugar, pigmeat and poultry”. She also proposed removing the requirement that in order for wood to be deforestation-free, it must have “been harvested from the forest without inducing forest degradation after December 31, 2020”. Additionally, she proposes reframing the risk categories from standard, low, and high risk to zero, low, and high risk. For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.

IEA publishes Plan to Reduce Dependency on Russian Energy

The International Energy Agency (IEA) prepared A 10-Point Plan to Reduce the European Union’s Reliance on Russian Natural Gas. A series of measures include an encouragement to increase the use of bioenergy in the EU (point 5). The European Commission is also planning to disclose a plan to reduce the import of energy carriers from Russia: oil, gas and coal. Measures related to gas would decrease Russian gas imports by 80%. For more information, please contact Michal Dlugosz.

Amendment to the MRR published by Official Journal

The Official Journal published Implementing Regulation 2022/388 on 8 March, which amends the Monitoring and Reporting Regulations for the Emissions Trading Scheme. The text states that Member States “may consider as fulfilled the sustainability and GHG emissions saving criteria referred to in that paragraph for biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels used for combustion from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022”. This was done to ensure that biomass can maintain its zero rating in the ETS without the voluntary schemes necessary to verify the sustainability criteria in REDII due to delays in the necessary delegated acts from the Commission. For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.

Joint European Action for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy

On Tuesday, the European Commission released a Communication to accelerate the deployment of renewables, while ensuring the affordability and security of EU energy supply by decreasing fossil gas imports from Russia. Bioenergy Europe has published an initial reaction to the communication which lacks a clear path forward for how bioenergy will be integrated as part of the solution to decrease the dependency on Russian fossil fuels. For more information, please contact Irene di Padua.

Communication: Towards a Green, Digital and Resilient Economy

The European Commission has published a communication titled: Towards a green, digital and resilient economy: our European Growth Model in which it recalls the common objectives the EU and Member States have committed to regarding the green and digital transition. To deliver on the EU Green Deal, an investment increase of €520 billion per year in the coming decade is needed, of which €390 billion would correspond to the decarbonisation of the economy, in particular the energy sector.

Consideration of the REDIII Draft Report in ITRE Committee

The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy will consider Markus Pieper’s draft report on REDIII on Thursday, 3 March from 9.00 – 12.00. This will be an opportunity for the rapporteur and the shadows to present their opinions on the file and to ask questions. The streaming can be followed here. For more information, please contact Irene di Padua.

AGRI Committee Debate on Forest Strategy

On Monday, 28 February, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development debated the role of forestry in the new EU Forest Strategy (full draft agenda). During the presentation of the draft report, Luisa Regimenti (EPP, IT), rapporteur for opinion, highlighted the importance of Sustainable Forest Management to ensure long-term production and maintenance of ecosystems’ services. Petri Sarvamaa (EPP, FI) emphasised that understanding the variety of forests is key and therefore the “the huge potential of biomass and increasing biodiversity and carbon sequestration cannot be done if they get a one size fits all approach.” For more information, please contact Irene di Padua.

Bioenergy Europe’s New Policy Director

As of 3 March, Irene di Padua will step into the role of Policy Director, taking over from Giulia Cancian. Irene will oversee the activities of the department whilst coordinating the Task Force National Advocacy as well as the WG Domestic Heating.