Commissioners Wojciechowski and Sinkevičius, the Commissioners for Agriculture and the Environment respectively, presented the Forest Strategy to the European Parliament, the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety at a hearing on 27 October. The Commissioners focused on the possibility for better data collection to create more robust and harmonised information on European forests. For more information, please contact Daniel Reinemann.
Bioenergy Europe’s Secretariat has worked on a position paper focusing on the role of renewable heating in the Fit for 55. The document looks at the proposals for revision of the Renewable Energy Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive and suggests some amendments to improve the text. The concept presented are based on previous position and internal discussion. Please share your inputs on the draft by 8 November COB and contact Irene di Padua for further information on this topic.
Following the stakeholder workshop of 29 October, Bioenergy Europe drafted some inputs on the role of bioenergy in the draft roadmap and developed a one-pager summarising our main concerns regarding this initiative. We strongly encourage to share your inputs on the roadmap and the one-pager by 7 November. For more information, please contact Irene di Padua.
Bioenergy Europe has undersigned the Call on Carbon initiative, which calls on governments to ramp up carbon pricing. The open letter calls for governments to back their net zero targets with effective carbon pricing instruments, align their carbon pricing to create a stable investment environment and support cost-effective mitigation efforts to minimise carbon leakage. The initiative is supported by leaders from more than 100 businesses, cities, universities and business associations and networks, whose members and partners represent and gather over 60 million companies and farmers.
A dramatic increase of the energy prices in the EU was a subject of debate during European Council summit, 21-22 October and the sectoral Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council meeting on 26 October. Earlier this month, the European Commission proposed an Energy Price Toolbox mostly focusing on the short-term measures. In the long-term ministers mentioned the following measures: reforming the functioning of the wholesale electricity market, voluntary joint purchase schemes for gas and EU-level solutions for storage. For more information, please contact Michal Dlugosz.
The joint WG Sustainability and WG Biopower & CHP meeting took place on 14 October where the current situation of Fit for 55 dossiers (REDII implementation, REDIII outlook, LULUFC and EU ETS) was discussed. Furthermore, the reasons behind the current energy price crisis were presented and an outlook was given what role bioenergy can play in the future to mitigate price changes. Minutes along with the slides are available. For more information, please contact Giulia Cancian.
Bioenergy Europe has finalised the position paper on the revision of the Energy Taxation Directive presenting the main assessment of the legislative proposal. This paper will be used during meetings with the European Council and the European Parliament. For more information, please contact Michal Dlugosz.
On 27 October, 11:00-13:00 CEST, the AgroBioHeat H2020 project is organising a webinar to promote mass deployment of agrobiomass solutions in Europe. The webinar will present concrete examples in this field (find here the latest agenda) and will be followed by an online matchmaking event on 3-4 November, 10:00-16:00 CET to bring together companies and organisations to create new business opportunities. Registration is open until 2 November. For further information, please contact Irene di Padua.
On October 26, 14:00-16:00 (CEST), Bioenergy Europe, re4industry and Music-Project are holding a free webinar to inform companies from the Energy Intensive Industry about bioenergy’s role in enabling the sector’s decarbonisation efforts. See the agenda, register to the event, and add the event to your calendar. For further information, please contact Francisco Lourenco Matias.
Bioenergy Europe together with Bioenergy International magazine are hosting a free and open webinar occurring on October 21, 14:00-16:00 (CEST). During this event, the REDII sustainability requirements for solid biomass will be reminded but also the state of play of the REDII transposition and implementation among the different member states will be provided. Lastly, various paths to demonstrate compliance with the REDII sustainability requirements will be presented. See the agenda, register to the event, and add the event to your calendar. For further information, please contact Francisco Lourenco Matias.
