Bioplat celebrates the publication of the Red III text regarding biomass

The Spanish Biomass Platform -BIOPLAT- a public-private collaboration forum established in 2007 and made up of more than 240 entities (companies, public research organizations, universities and R&D&I centers) from the Spanish bioeconomy sector, is welcomes the definitive text agreed for the new Renewable Directive (RED III, update of the current RED II) with regard to the field of biomass sustainability.

The text, agreed by the Swedish presidency of the EurOPEA Union and the EurOPEO Parliament at the night of Wednesday, March 29, it has been known on Thursday, March 30 after more than a year of uncertainty and several months of intensanegotiations in the final phase (trillogues) of the board.

Sustainability of biomass, from Network II to Network III
The Eur OPEA Directive current biomass biolíchids and fuels; It already establishes very demanding sustainability requirements for biomass for energy generation , assimilable to those that were already required from the first renewable directive (Network I, published in 2009) to biocarbons.

However, the publication of the eur OPEO FIT FOR 55 package in July 2021, whose ambition is to achieve an objective of reduction of GHG emissions in at least 55% (compared to 1990) that the EU has set for 2030, established that - in consequence - it was necessary to increase the ambition of the related Eur , including the renewable directive, despite its short regulatory route.

In the directive update process, the biomass business model in the northern eur after political restrictions to the use of coal, has largely conditioned the position of the Eur a definition of 'primary woody biomass' that practically encompassed all forest biomass except that generated by forest industries (which is a type of biomass that generally self -consumes in these industries and does not reach the market). All this with the objective of establishing that it could not be valued energetically, or backward or benefit from support measures called 'primary woody biomass'.

For Spain, the establishment of this definition in RED III would have had a very negative impact , not only on the biomass sector, but also on the mountains and the forestry sector, with very risky consequences on forest fires. Situation that was analyzed in the Scientific Manifesto promoted by BIOPLAT and signed by more than a hundred Spanish scientists and academics, which was sent to the Third Vice President of the Government and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, at the end of 2022.

Agreement reached: Final text of the new Renewable Directive (Red III)
although the bioenergy business model in Spain differs substantially from that of the countries of northern Eur OPA, since in our country the biomass supply chain is very disseminated in the territories, it is local and proximity, with a guarantee of sustainability by having an extensive and consolidated forest regulation; All member states must transpose to their national legal system the provisions of the Directive, regardless of the degree of development of their sector and biomass market . So what is established there is tremendously relevant.

The final agreed text further tightens the sustainability criteria and extends them to more plants (all those whose capacity exceeds 7.5 MWt) , limits the remuneration for electricity generation from forest biomass except in exceptional cases (such as in just transition zones, with associated carbon capture and storage technologies or in outermost regions such as islands) and regulates aspects such as the cascade use of biomass. However, it has not included the definition of 'primary forest biomass' which, in the case of Spain, would have led to tremendous dysfunctions by limiting the extraction of biomass from the mountains for energy uses. Forest biomass whose accumulation represents a serious risk, since the lack of forest management, mobilization and extraction of this biomass would aggravate forest fires by preventing access to the mountains and their extinction.

After more than a year of enormous uncertainty, the sector, although it regrets that new limitations have been established that must be applied retroactively , such as increasing GHG emissions savings in plants to 80% compared to the fossil alternative, both for new and existing plants, is grateful that this uncertain and worrying period has come to an end , and that the definition of 'primary woody biomass' that would have been so detrimental to the forests and the value chain of the forestry sector , has not been finally adopted.

Government of Spain and Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge
in the final phase of the Boarding of the Directive (called Trologists, as the Commission, the Parliament and the Eur Opeos Council are involved), the position of Spain in the Eur Opeo Council has been contrary to the establishment of this definition given the potential negative impact on the mobilization of biomass accumulated in the mountains and, consequently, consequently, over the fire Forestry that every year is of greater size and virulence. Especially when Spain has sufficiently guarantor forest regulations. Perfectly aligned position with the rest of the Mediterranean countries, whose sectors are much more similar to that of Spain than to the northern countries eur opeos, and who also share the terrifying problem of forest fires that every summer sweep their mountains.

BIOPLAT recognizes and thanks the Minister and the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, specifically the Secretary of State for Energy led by Sara Aagesen, with its General Directorate of Energy Policy and Mines and its Subdirectorate of Renewable Energies, and the Secretary of State of the Environment led by Hugo Morán, with its General Directorate of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification and its General Subdirectorate of Forest Policy and Fight against Desertification, in addition to the General Secretariat for the Demographic Challenge led by Francesc Boya, having listened to all agents in the sector - from companies, foresters and environmentalists to scientists and academics - and their role in the negotiations, with indisputable rigor, and with sustainability and forest conservation as a priority .

The sector, once the unknowns have been cleared up and with the rules clear after the agreement reached on the final text of the RED III, will continue to demonstrate that it is possible to combine sustainability and the conservation of our natural capital with sustainable forest management, the fight against forest fires, the energy transition and the bioeconomy.