„Sustainable Biofuels“ UFOP/AGQM Workshop
Dramatic information deficit / workshop papers available
Due to the fact that Germany is the only member country of the European Union so far to transpose the EU Directive on the Promotion of the Use of Energy from Renewable Sources (2009/28/EC) in national law, the Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP) and also the Association Qualitiy Management Biodiesel(AGQM) had responded by organising together an international workshop to answer questions and meet the obvious large information deficit in this area. The workshop took place in Berlin on 28 May 2010.
Dr. Hans-Jürgen Froese of the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV) discussed the requirements and regulations of the „Biofuels“ biomass sustainability ordinance in the light of the postponement of the deadline for the adoption of this ordinance to 1 January 2011 now decided by the German government. Dr. Froese made it clear that with this postponement a transitional arrangement for the 2010 harvest was no longer applicable because the requirements of the law had to be implemented from that date. Dr. Matthias Nickel from the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE) therefore appealed to the affected economic circles, from agriculture, farm produce traders, oil mills and biofuel producers, not to loose time in certifying the companies and interfaces, respectively. A precondition for the proof of sustainability is the issue of the so called self-declaration by farmers to the first buyer/farm produce trader confirming that the biomass delivered, e.g., rapeseed for the production of bioduel, has been grown according to the principles of sustainability. The particular organisational challenge is compliance with the requirement of the law that 3 per cent of all farms should be inspected before the end of this year, Dr. Nickel emphasised.
On this background, Dr. Norbert Schmitz, managing director of International Sustainable Carbon Certification GmbH (ISCC) and Peter Jürgens, executive secretary of the certification system REDcert supported by the associations, explained the proposed certification concepts. Both certification systems have temporarily been accepted by the BLE and can be used for certification not only in Germany but internationally. No other system except these two has so far been accredited by any country within the European Union. The import of biomass or biofuels for setoff against the obligatory quota or for tax concession is not possible without certification from 1 January 2011.
UFOP and AGQM note that biofuel contracts for 2011 are already concluded in 2010. So the implementation of certification systems needs a time lead to ensure that quantities of certified biofuel are available before the 2010 is out. This also solves the problem of the biofuel stocks at the year end.
The presentations of the conference are subject to a charge and available on request. Please contact Mrs Anja Bäumer at a.baeumer(at)agqm-biodiesel.de if you are interestet in it.
The costs will be:
50 EUR for AGQM/BPAC/UFOP-members per person and
150 EUR for non-members per person.
