Accel AgroBiogas outlines policy barriers and potential opportunites for EU biogas
In Denmark, at the end of January, partners and associated partners within Accel AgroBiogas gathered for an online policy workshop to discuss current policy barriers – and emerging policy opportunities – for integrating sequential crops, crop residues, and ley grass into sustainable biogas production. The workshop brought together expertise from across the value chain, with a particular focus on developments and opportunities at both EU and national levels. Key themes included the ongoing revision of the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) as well as the recently updated EU Bioeconomy Strategy, to which the project contributed last year.
Among the concrete issues discussed were carbon accounting and verification, as well as the lack of standardized methods for carbon accounting in EU legislation. Under the current regulatory framework, it is very difficult to verify improvements in soil carbon content. Even though improved cultivation practices such as sequential crops and ley cultivation on arable land can clearly increase soil carbon levels, it is practically impossible to meet the documentation requirements based on field measurements under current legislation. Field measurements are often difficult, costly, or practically impossible to carry out, and research also shows that some effects of cultivation practices on soil properties only become measurable after generations of farming.
A recurring topic throughout discussions on all the policy areas mentioned above was the lack of coordination and harmonization between energy legislation and agricultural legislation – a problem that exists both at EU level and at national level. In addition, unclear, ambiguous, or sometimes contradictory wording in EU legislation leads to very different implementation of the rules across countries.
The Accel AgroBiogas partnership therefore hopes to contribute to raising this issue on the European biogas agenda during the coming year, at a time when European energy legislation is under revision. Several European stakeholders have already signaled their support for this initiative.
Category: Policy
