Kontroll av og kriterier for bærekraftig produksjon av biobrensel
Kommisjonens gjennomføringsforordning (EU) 2022/996 av 14. juni 2022 om regler for kontroll av bærekraft og klimagassutslipp og kriterier for å reduksjon av klimagassutslipp og kriterier for lavrisiko indirekte endring av arealbruk
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/996 of 14 June 2022 on rules to verify sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions saving criteria and low indirect land-use change-risk criteria
Kommisjonsforordning publisert i EU-tidende 27.6.2022
Bakgrunn
BAKGRUNN (fra kommisjonsforordningen, engelsk utgave)
(1) Directive (EU) 2018/2001 expands the role of voluntary schemes to include the certification of the compliance of biomass fuels with sustainability and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions saving criteria and the compliance of renewable liquid and gaseous transport fuels of non-biological origin and recycled carbon fuels with the respective GHG emissions saving criteria. Furthermore, the voluntary schemes can be used to certify biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels with low indirect land-use change-risk.
(2) In order to establish whether biofuels, bioliquids, biomass fuels, renewable gaseous and liquid transport fuels of non-biological origin and recycled carbon fuels comply with the requirements of Directive (EU) 2018/2001, the correct and harmonised functioning of voluntary schemes is essential. Harmonised rules should therefore be established, to apply across the certification system, bringing about the necessary legal certainty on the rules applicable to economic operators and voluntary schemes.
(3) With a view to minimising the administrative burden, the implementing rules should be proportionate and limited to what is required to ensure that compliance with the sustainability and GHG emissions saving criteria and other requirements is verified in an adequate and harmonised manner that minimises the risk of fraud to the greatest extent possible. The implementing rules should therefore not be considered as a comprehensive standard but rather as minimum requirements. The voluntary schemes may accordingly complement these rules as appropriate.
(4) Economic operators may decide at any time to participate in a different voluntary scheme. However, in order to prevent an economic operator that has failed an audit under one scheme from immediately applying for certification under another scheme, all schemes receiving an application from an economic operator should require that operator to supply information about whether it failed an audit in the previous 5 years. This should also apply to situations where the economic operator has a new legal personality but remains the same in substance, so that minor or purely formal changes, for instance, in the governance structure or the scope of activities, do not exempt the new economic operator from such a rule.
(5) The mass balance system aims to reduce the administrative burden for demonstrating compliance with the sustainability and greenhouse gas saving criteria by allowing mixing of raw material and fuels with differing sustainability characteristics and by allowing reassignment of the sustainability characteristics in a flexible manner to consignments withdrawn from such a mixture. In order to ensure transparency, mixing under the mass balance system is only possible if raw material and fuels belong to the same product group. A product group can comprise for instance different types of non-food cellulosic material with similar physical and chemical characteristics, heating values and/or conversion factors or the types of ligno-cellulosic material covered under point q of Annex IX Part A to Directive (EU) 2018/2001. Virgin vegetable oils, used for the production of biofuels and bioliquids, may belong to the same product group. Raw materials, however, that can be used to produce biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels which are subject to different rules concerning their contribution towards the targets for renewable energy should generally not be considered to be part of the same product group as this would risk to undermine the objectives of Directive (EU) 2018/2001, which applies differentiated treatment of biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels on the basis of the feedstock they are produced from. In case of gaseous fuels, the EU interconnected grid is considered as one single mass balancing system. Gaseous fuels produced and consumed off the grid or through isolated local distribution networks are to be considered as separate mass balancing systems. Further, precautionary measures are required to ensure the consistency of sustainability claims when fuels are exported to third countries which do not apply the mass balance system. To this end, the mass balance system should also include information on quantities of fuels for which no sustainability characteristics have been determined and deliveries of fuels to uncertified operators shall be taken into account in the mass balance system, based on the physical nature of delivered fuels.
(6) In the preparation of the initial on-site audit as well as during subsequent surveillance or re-certification audits, the auditor should make an appropriate analysis of the overall risk profile of economic operators. Based on the auditor's professional knowledge and the information submitted by the economic operator, this analysis should take into consideration not only the level of risk of the specific economic operator but also of the supply chain (e.g. for economic operators that handle materials listed in Annex IX to Directive (EU) 2018/2001). The audit intensity, its scope, or both, should be adapted to the level of identified overall risk in order to ensure an adequate level of trust in the veracity of the information provided by the economic operators, mitigating the risks for material misstatements.
(7) In group auditing, where on-site audits are replaced by desk audits, voluntary schemes and certification bodies should ensure that those audits are able to provide the same level of assurance provided by an on-site audit (e.g. availability of high quality satellite images, data on protected areas and peatland that provide information on the relevant time horizon).
(8) Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/807 , acknowledges that under certain circumstances, the indirect land-use change (ILUC) impacts of biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels that are considered as high ILUC-risk can be avoided. In order to ensure a level playing field in the implementation of the low ILUC-risk certification process across voluntary schemes, it is necessary to lay down specific requirements to allow for certification of low ILUC-risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels. Certified low ILUC-risk biofuels, bioliquids or biomass fuels should be exempted from the limit and gradual reduction set for high ILUC-risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels produced from food and feed crops, provided that they meet the relevant sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions saving criteria laid down in Article 29 of Directive (EU) 2018/2001.
(9) Economic operators applying for low ILUC-risk certification can already have obtained a certification for other aspects by a voluntary scheme, or can apply for low ILUC-risk certification at the same time as applying for a certification for other aspects that can be covered by a voluntary scheme. Applicants can be a farm, a group of farmers or a first gathering point or a group manager acting on behalf of a group of farmers. In case of measures being applied to perennial crops, the start of the 10-year validity period of low ILUC certification can be postponed due to the delay between the measure being implemented and the yield increase being observed.
(10) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee on the Sustainability of Biofuels, Bioliquids and Biomass fuels established by Article 34(2) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001
(1) Directive (EU) 2018/2001 expands the role of voluntary schemes to include the certification of the compliance of biomass fuels with sustainability and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions saving criteria and the compliance of renewable liquid and gaseous transport fuels of non-biological origin and recycled carbon fuels with the respective GHG emissions saving criteria. Furthermore, the voluntary schemes can be used to certify biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels with low indirect land-use change-risk.
(2) In order to establish whether biofuels, bioliquids, biomass fuels, renewable gaseous and liquid transport fuels of non-biological origin and recycled carbon fuels comply with the requirements of Directive (EU) 2018/2001, the correct and harmonised functioning of voluntary schemes is essential. Harmonised rules should therefore be established, to apply across the certification system, bringing about the necessary legal certainty on the rules applicable to economic operators and voluntary schemes.
(3) With a view to minimising the administrative burden, the implementing rules should be proportionate and limited to what is required to ensure that compliance with the sustainability and GHG emissions saving criteria and other requirements is verified in an adequate and harmonised manner that minimises the risk of fraud to the greatest extent possible. The implementing rules should therefore not be considered as a comprehensive standard but rather as minimum requirements. The voluntary schemes may accordingly complement these rules as appropriate.
(4) Economic operators may decide at any time to participate in a different voluntary scheme. However, in order to prevent an economic operator that has failed an audit under one scheme from immediately applying for certification under another scheme, all schemes receiving an application from an economic operator should require that operator to supply information about whether it failed an audit in the previous 5 years. This should also apply to situations where the economic operator has a new legal personality but remains the same in substance, so that minor or purely formal changes, for instance, in the governance structure or the scope of activities, do not exempt the new economic operator from such a rule.
(5) The mass balance system aims to reduce the administrative burden for demonstrating compliance with the sustainability and greenhouse gas saving criteria by allowing mixing of raw material and fuels with differing sustainability characteristics and by allowing reassignment of the sustainability characteristics in a flexible manner to consignments withdrawn from such a mixture. In order to ensure transparency, mixing under the mass balance system is only possible if raw material and fuels belong to the same product group. A product group can comprise for instance different types of non-food cellulosic material with similar physical and chemical characteristics, heating values and/or conversion factors or the types of ligno-cellulosic material covered under point q of Annex IX Part A to Directive (EU) 2018/2001. Virgin vegetable oils, used for the production of biofuels and bioliquids, may belong to the same product group. Raw materials, however, that can be used to produce biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels which are subject to different rules concerning their contribution towards the targets for renewable energy should generally not be considered to be part of the same product group as this would risk to undermine the objectives of Directive (EU) 2018/2001, which applies differentiated treatment of biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels on the basis of the feedstock they are produced from. In case of gaseous fuels, the EU interconnected grid is considered as one single mass balancing system. Gaseous fuels produced and consumed off the grid or through isolated local distribution networks are to be considered as separate mass balancing systems. Further, precautionary measures are required to ensure the consistency of sustainability claims when fuels are exported to third countries which do not apply the mass balance system. To this end, the mass balance system should also include information on quantities of fuels for which no sustainability characteristics have been determined and deliveries of fuels to uncertified operators shall be taken into account in the mass balance system, based on the physical nature of delivered fuels.
(6) In the preparation of the initial on-site audit as well as during subsequent surveillance or re-certification audits, the auditor should make an appropriate analysis of the overall risk profile of economic operators. Based on the auditor's professional knowledge and the information submitted by the economic operator, this analysis should take into consideration not only the level of risk of the specific economic operator but also of the supply chain (e.g. for economic operators that handle materials listed in Annex IX to Directive (EU) 2018/2001). The audit intensity, its scope, or both, should be adapted to the level of identified overall risk in order to ensure an adequate level of trust in the veracity of the information provided by the economic operators, mitigating the risks for material misstatements.
(7) In group auditing, where on-site audits are replaced by desk audits, voluntary schemes and certification bodies should ensure that those audits are able to provide the same level of assurance provided by an on-site audit (e.g. availability of high quality satellite images, data on protected areas and peatland that provide information on the relevant time horizon).
(8) Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/807 , acknowledges that under certain circumstances, the indirect land-use change (ILUC) impacts of biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels that are considered as high ILUC-risk can be avoided. In order to ensure a level playing field in the implementation of the low ILUC-risk certification process across voluntary schemes, it is necessary to lay down specific requirements to allow for certification of low ILUC-risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels. Certified low ILUC-risk biofuels, bioliquids or biomass fuels should be exempted from the limit and gradual reduction set for high ILUC-risk biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels produced from food and feed crops, provided that they meet the relevant sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions saving criteria laid down in Article 29 of Directive (EU) 2018/2001.
(9) Economic operators applying for low ILUC-risk certification can already have obtained a certification for other aspects by a voluntary scheme, or can apply for low ILUC-risk certification at the same time as applying for a certification for other aspects that can be covered by a voluntary scheme. Applicants can be a farm, a group of farmers or a first gathering point or a group manager acting on behalf of a group of farmers. In case of measures being applied to perennial crops, the start of the 10-year validity period of low ILUC certification can be postponed due to the delay between the measure being implemented and the yield increase being observed.
(10) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Committee on the Sustainability of Biofuels, Bioliquids and Biomass fuels established by Article 34(2) of Directive (EU) 2018/2001