EED Updates

The ITRE committee rapporteur Niels Fuglsang (DK, S&D) published the draft report on the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) recast. The report will be presented in the committee meeting of 3 March and MEPs can table amendments on the draft until 8 March. The deadline for the consideration of amendments is 20 April, and the adoption of the report is expected in June (dates might be subject to changes). The position of the Council on the EED recast is also available hereFor more information, please contact Irene di Padua.

ITRE Draft Report on REDIII

The ITRE committee is expected to release a draft report on the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive written by Markus Pieper (EPP, DE). In discussing the report MEP Pieper has said that forest management “cannot be defined uniformly throughout Europe,” and that his “report therefore, deletes the proposal for a delegated act to implement the cascading principle.” For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.

REDIII AGRI Amendments

The AGRI committee published the second part of amendments tabled on the revision of the REDIII. Several MEPs advocated for a fairer framework to ensure bioenergy operators are aligned with the transition. A more detailed analysis and planned next steps will be shared soon. For more information, please contact Irene di Padua.

REDIII Second Revision

The second revision of the Renewable Energy Directive has now been released to the Council. This document shows where current negotiations in the Council are on REDIII and more changes are expected. Preliminary observations of the current document include modifications to the GHG savings criteria, exemption threshold, no-go areas, and the cascading use of biomass, all of which are moving in the right direction. For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.

Revision of EU ETS by ITRE

The ITRE committee published its amendments to the draft opinion for the Emissions Trading System. A number of them refer to the alteration of a threshold to exclude installations with 95% of emissions from sustainable biomass from the EU ETS (130, 131, 132, 133). The ENVI committee presented its draft report last week. Bioenergy Europe has, in cooperation with Euroheat & Power, forwarded this week a proposition of amendments to key MEPs proposing to increase the exclusion threshold for biomass. For more information, please contact Michal Dlugosz.

Presentation of Sustainable Carbon Cycles to AGRI

On 2 February, Christan Holzleitner, the Head of Unit for Land Use and Finance for Innovation at DG CLIMA presented on the Commission’s proposal on the Communication on the Sustainable Carbon Cycles to the AGRI Committee at the European Parliament. Holzleitner’s presentation focused on how carbon farming could be promoted and how land managers could benefit from clear guidelines which would support and strengthen carbon markets. He said that the right certification system would be important for the system to work and that a public consultation would be opened for this. For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.    

AGRI amendments on REDIII Draft Opinion

The AGRI committee published the first part of amendments tabled on the revision of the REDIII. Several MEPs advocated for a fairer framework to ensure bioenergy operators are aligned with the transition. Once the full list of amendments will be available the Secretariat will share a more detailed analysis and planned next steps. For more information, please contact Irene di Padua.

Call for Evidence for Certification of Carbon Removals

The European Commission launched a call for evidence on the certification of carbon removals. Feedback can be submitted until 2 May 2022. The exercise will help assess the main objectives of the certification system framework, of which a proposal is expected by the Commission in Q4 2022. Additionally, the recordings and presentations from last week’s conference on Sustainable Carbon Cycles are available. For more information, please contact Michal Dlugosz.