REDcert 3/2011

REDcert Newsletter Issue 03/2011
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REDcert Newsletter Issue 03/2011


In our last Newsletter, No. 2 in the section entitled "NUTS2 regions", we mentioned that it is only permitted to still use the default values for biomass originating from European member states given certain conditions. Because this creates several problems in practice, the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Nutrition (Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung - BLE) has provided some important information on the different possibilities that exist for handling this biomass under the scope of sustainability certification in consultation with the REDcert and ISCC certification systems. We would like to explain this below:



Provision for old installations

According to Article 8 para. 2 of the Biomass Electricity Sustainability Ordinance (BioSt-NachV) and Biofuels Sustainability Ordinance (Biokraft-NachV), old installations are final interfaces that were put into operation prior to 23 January 2008. These old installations only have to demonstrate a greenhouse gas emission saving of at least 35% starting 1 April 2013. Interfaces before the final interface (e.g. primary distributors) do not have to indicate the CO2 emissions that were created during the respective step if the raw material will be processed in an old installation and this installation also applies the provision for old installations. To make sure that this is absolutely clear, upstream interfaces in the REDcert system have to declare the biomass "sustainable" on the delivery or shipping documents and also write "for exclusive use in old installations”.



It is also not permitted to include the liquid biomass or biofuel for which the greenhouse gas emissions saving is calculated or specified as a default value in the balance. It is only possible to combine several sustainability certificates and partial sustainability certificates in the Nabisy application if the provision for old installations is applied to all of them.

To be on the safe side, we would like to point out once again that operators of facilities for electricity generation (CHP) are not entitled to the "Nawaro bonus" if they use liquid biomass from old installations. Final interfaces that intend to apply the provision for old installations should mention this explicitly to their customers (dealers, CHP operators) to prevent potential conflicts later on.



Provision for NUTS2 regions

So far, the member states have submitted extremely varied responses to the EU Commission about typical emissions in NUTS2 regions. As a result, there are a number of different options for taking action that we would like to explain in detail with respect to the REDcert system:


A Unrestricted use of default values

* Member state has confirmed to the EU-COM that the typical GHG emissions are no higher than the respective default values* for cultivating biomass for all of its NUTS2 regions, but possibly only for certain types of biomass



The default values for cultivating biomass in Annex 2 (1)(a) of the Sustainability Ordinances may be used with no restrictions as long as the Commission has reviewed/confirmed the report.

* As long as they exist for the specific type of biomass


B Restricted use of default values

* Member state has confirmed to the EU-COM that the typical GHG emissions are no higher than the respective default values* for cultivating biomass for only some of its NUTS2 regions


The default values for cultivating biomass in Annex 2 (1)(a) of the Sustainability Ordinances may be used for biomass that originates from the confirmed NUTS2 regions.



Biomass that is intended for use in old installations may be used from all NUTS-2 regions because it is not necessary to specify a GHG value (see paragraph "Provision for old installations".).

C Default values may not be used

* Member state has not confirmed NUTS2 regions to the EU-COM
* EU Commission has not yet reviewed/confirmed the report of the member state or
* Member state indicated that the typical GHG emissions exceed the respective default values for the cultivation of biomass.


The default values for cultivating biomass in Annex 2 (1)(a) of the Sustainability Ordinances may not be used, values have to be calculated individually.


Biomass that is intended for use in old installations may be used from all NUTS-2 regions because it is not necessary to specify a GHG value (see paragraph "Provision for old installations".).

In all cases, the values actually calculated may always be used for the GHG emissions when cultivating biomass.



What is the current situation in the individual member states?

The following table provides an overview as of March 2011. It should be kept in mind that the situation in each individual member state can change at any time. Italics indicates that the reports have not yet been approved by the Commission. The current and valid status can be found at:

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/transparency_platform/emissions_en.htm



Option


Member state (italics: report is still being reviewed by the Commission)

A


- Belgium (NUTS-2 regions identified for corn, rapeseed, wheat, sugar beets)

- Bulgaria (NUTS-2 regions identified for sunflowers and rapeseed)

- Germany (NUTS-2 regions identified for corn, rapeseed, wheat, sugar beets)

- Finland (NUTS-2 regions identified for rapeseed and wheat)

- France (NUTS-2 regions identified for corn, rapeseed, sunflowers, wheat, sugar beets)

- Ireland (NUTS-2 regions identified for rapeseed, wheat, sugar beets)

- Lithuania (NUTS-2 regions identified for rapeseed and wheat)

- Luxembourg (NUTS-2 regions identified for rapeseed and wheat)

- Austria (NUTS-2 regions identified for corn, rapeseed, soybeans, sunflowers, wheat, sugar beets)

- Romania (NUTS-2 regions identified for corn, rapeseed, sunflowers, wheat, sugar beets)

- Sweden (NUTS-2 regions identified for rapeseed and wheat)

- Slovenia (NUTS-2 regions identified for corn, rapeseed, wheat)

- Slovakia (NUTS-2 regions identified for corn and rapeseed)

- Czech Republic (NUTS-2 regions identified for corn, rapeseed, wheat, sugar beets)

- Hungary (NUTS-2 regions identified for corn, rapeseed, sunflowers, wheat, sugar beets)



B


- Estonia

- Latvia

- Great Britain (NUTS-2 regions identified for rapeseed, wheat and sugar beets whereby the disaggregated default values for cultivation pursuant to Art. 19 para. 2 in Annex V (D) of Directive 2009/28/EC were exceeded for sugar beets in all NUTS2 regions and in all but three NUTS-2 regions for rapeseed and in 12 NUTS-2 regions for wheat)

- Denmark (NUTS-2 regions identified for rapeseed and wheat whereby the disaggregated default values for cultivation pursuant to Art. 19 para. 2 in Annex V (D) of Directive 2009/28/EC were exceeded for wheat in three NUTS2 regions), Netherlands (NUTS-2 regions identified for corn, rapeseed, wheat, sugar beets whereby the disaggregated default values for cultivation pursuant to Art. 19 para. 2 in Annex V (D) of Directive 2009/28/EC were exceeded for wheat in all NUTS-2 regions except for one)

- Spain (NUTS-2 regions identified for rapeseed and sunflowers whereby the disaggregated default values for farming pursuant to Art. 19 para. 2 in Annex V (D) of Directive 2009/28/EC were exceeded for wheat in all NUTS-2 regions except for one and in one NUTS-2 region for sunflowers).



C


- Malta

- Poland

- Portugal

- Cyprus

For biomass not listed in Annex V (D) of Directive 2009/28/EC, estimated values can be used instead as long as they are calculated using the same method used by the respective member state to calculate its cultivation values at NUTS2 level and this method has been recognised by the EU Commission. These values have only been approved to date in Germany for rye, barley and triticale (see Newsletter no.11-2010).



Information for final interfaces

According to Article 8 para. 4(1) of the Biomass Electricity Sustainability Ordinance (BioSt-NachV) and Biofuels Sustainability Ordinance (Biokraft-NachV), the final interface may always use the total default value when calculating the greenhouse gas emission saving and identify biomass as sustainable as long as the 35% reduction in GHG emissions required by the Directive is guaranteed by the total default value. This is the case because the restricting condition of Article 8 para. 4(2) of the BioKraft-NachV and BioSt-NachV only relates to the partial default value for cultivation.



Self-declaration for farms

To ensure that the recipient of the cultivated biomass (primarily the primary distributor) can identify which NUTS2 region of an EU member state the biomass was cultivated in and to guarantee traceability, this information must be included on the self-declaration in accordance with the specifications of the BLE – as long as this is not obvious from the address provided on the declaration by the producer. REDcert has modified the self-declaration form accordingly. It can be downloaded from www.redcert.org under "Documents à Self-declaration". The primary distributors are responsible for correctly entering and passing on the GHG values of the sustainable biomass supplied either in the form of a default value, an individual value or an estimated value.



Submission of sustainability certificates by the final interface

As a reminder, final interfaces are required to directly submit copies of all sustainability certificates they have issued on the basis of the sustainability ordinances to the certification body responsible for them. This is set forth in Article 26 para. 1 (1)(b) of the BioKraft-NachV and BioSt-NachV.

The reporting and notification duties of the certification bodies are regulated in Article 53 of the BioKraft-NachV and BioSt-NachV. According to these provisions, a certification body can transfer responsibility for submission of the sustainability certificates to the BLE to the final interfaces it has certified which is currently standard practice. Article 53 of the BioKraft-NachV and BioSt-NachV does not, however, release the final interfaces from the responsibility set forth in Article 26 BioKraft-NachV and BioSt-NachV to give copies of all of its sustainability certificates to the certification body responsible for them. The certification body must archive all of the sustainability certificates should it be necessary to consult them as part of an inspection.



Date of interface certification

A sustainability certificate or partial sustainability certificate is absolutely required for every quantity of liquid biomass or biofuel used to generate electricity from liquid biomass in installations or introduced to the market as biofuel after 1 January 2011.

When a final interface issues a sustainability certificate, this interface as well as all upstream interfaces in the value chain have to have been certified. At this point in time, the verification of sustainability must have been provided by the entire value chain up to and including the final interface. This does not mean that interfaces must have been certified by 31 December 2010. The determining factor instead is the point in time at which the biofuel was brought to market or the point in time that the liquid biomass was used to generate electricity. In some individual cases, this may also be much later than 31 December 2010. For biofuel, for example, that was introduced to the market on 1 July 2011, it is sufficient if all interfaces are certified no later than 30 June 2011.

Until 31 December 2010, a special ruling applied to the first interface which made it possible to transfer biomass to the next interface even before certification. This is no longer possible as of 1 January 2011.

If, however, a non-certified primary distributor has already stored biomass and this biomass satisfies the requirements of the BioKraft-NachV and BioSt-NachV, this biomass can be passed on as sustainable after the primary distributor has been successfully certified.



Random inspections of farms

Because there continue to be misunderstandings about the frequency and timing of random inspections of farms, we would once again like to emphasise the following:

at least 3% of farms are to be randomly inspected when a primary distributor is certified. The inspections must be completed before the certificate is issued for the primary distributor. This was not usually possible for the initial certifications conducted in 2010 because of time constraints. Consequently, the BLE has decided that these "old" random inspections have to be completed retroactively but no later than the monitoring audit (max. 6 months after initial certification). With a view to the pending recertification of the primary distributor after one year, the "new" random inspection should be planned well enough in advance. Both random inspections must be conducted at different farms; from a time and organisational standpoint, however, they can happen at the same time if the certification body has enough capacity. When a primary distributor decides to do a recertification ahead of schedule as part of the monitoring audit, the principal also applies here that different random inspections have to be conducted (3%+3%) that, however, both have to be completed by the time of the monitoring or recertification audit.