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 European Union and the European Parliament late at night on Wednesday, March 29, was announced on Thursday, March 30 after more than a year of uncertainty and several months of intense negotiations in the final phase (trilogues) of the Directive.

Sustainability of biomass, from RED II to RED III
The European Directive currently in force (RED II) approved at the end of 2018, whose transposition was carried out in Spain less than a year ago through Royal Decree 376/2022, of May 17, which regulates the sustainability criteria and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels; already establishes very demanding sustainability requirements for biomass for energy generation , similar to those already required from the first Renewable Directive (RED I, published in 2009) for biofuels.

However, the publication of the European Fit for 55 package in July 2021, whose ambition is to achieve a target of reducing GHG emissions by at least 55% (compared to 1990) that the EU has set for 2030, established that - consequently - it was necessary to increase the ambition of the related European Directives , including the Renewable Directive, despite its short regulatory history.

In the process of updating the Directive, the biomass business model in northern European countries, where large coal plants of hundreds and thousands of MW were converted to biomass plants after political restrictions on the use of coal, has conditioned largely the position of the European Parliament, which opted to drastically limit the consumption of forest biomass in RED III by establishing 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 is generally self-consumed in these industries and does not reach the market). All of this with the aim of establishing that this so-called 'primary woody biomass' could not be energetically valued, nor remunerated or benefit from support measures.

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 northern European countries, since in our country the biomass supply chain is very spread throughout the territories, it is local and proximity, with a guarantee of sustainability by having extensive and consolidated forestry regulation; All Member States must transpose the provisions of the Directive into their national legal system, regardless of the degree of development of their biomass sector and market . Therefore, 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 negotiations of the Directive (called trilogues, as the Commission, the European Parliament and the Council are involved), Spain's position in the European 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, on forest fires that are of greater magnitude and virulence each year. Especially when Spain has forestry regulations that are sufficiently guaranteeing. Position perfectly aligned with the rest of the Mediterranean countries, whose sectors are much more similar to that of Spain than to that of the northern European countries, and who also share the terrifying problem of forest fires that devastate their mountains every summer.

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.