AEBIOM SUSTAINABILITY WORKING
GROUP
Fanny-Pomme Langue
Brussels
1st February 2017
Introduction
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Agenda
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Objective of the meeting
-> Exchange of views with the European Commission
-> Update on the EU institutional work
-> Define AEBIOM priorities and organise advocacy work
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Background note
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Introduction tour de table
EU institutional work - Parliament
-Process of appointing rapporteurs have started
-EP plans to work on all proposals in parallel (no order of priority)
- Ongoing internal discussion to decide which committee would be
responsible for the provisions on bioenergy sustainability (ENVI?
ITRE? Both?)
-> Art 54 of the rules of procedure of the European Parliament
-> carbon leakage provision of the ETS legislation -> ITRE
-> sustainability under the responsibility of ENVI committee
3
EU institutional work - Parliament
ITRE rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs – Feb 1st 2017
File
Greens
EPP
S&D
ECR
ALDE
GUE
EFDD
Governance
Turmes
Hökmark
??
Tosenovsky
Punset
Ferreira
Tamburrano
EED
Javor
Pieper
Gierek
Ziluaga
Tamburrano
Bendtsen
KumpulaNatri
Petersen
Sylikiotis
Tamburrano
Federley
Lopez
Bermejo
Tamburrano
EPBD
4
Marcellesi
RES
Turmes
Kelly
Blanco-Lopez
Market
Design
Turmes
Karins
Werner
El riskpreparedness
ACER
Harms
Skrlec
Niedermayer
Reul
Toia
Poche
Kouroumbash
ev
Innovation
Dalunde
Buzek
Van Bossuyt Gerbrandy
Czesak
Henkel
Krasnodebski
Fox
Henkel
Kallas
Mlinar
Petersen
Ernst
Ziluaga
Sylikiotis
Ziluaga
Tamburrano
Tbd
Tbd
Barekov
Meissner
Tbd
EU institutional work - Parliament
ENVI rapporteurs– Feb 1st 2017
• Governance: Greens
• RES: Greens
• EED : S&D
• EPBD : ALDE
• Market Design (Reg+Directive) : S&D
5
EU institutional work - Council
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Maltese Presidency: priority on EED
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Estonian Presidency: priority to electricity market
design
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Not clear yet when the political and technical discussion
on the RES Directive will start in the Council
Tour de Table
- General position of WG members on the
proposal
- Update on positions of national
authorities, if any
Proposal for AEBIOM position and
work organisation
- Background note
- Set AEBIOM priorities
- No discussion on details (task force work)
- Organise AEBIOM work
- Seek for a balanced position: soften the provisions
when needed + be constructive to improve / make
the provisions more ambitious when possible ??
AEBIOM position: 
-> SUPPORT / CLARIFY
• Definitions
- Add a definition on solid fuels?
• Support the 20 MW threshold
- Warning: no flexibility
• Apply only GHG criteria to processing residues
-Any risk of diverging definitions in MS?
AEBIOM position: 
-> SUPPORT / CLARIFY
• Land criteria for agricultural biomass
• Land criteria for forest biomass
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Support the general approach
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Improve the wording
• GHG emissions savings
-Support the consistency in methodology (carbon neutrality)
• Voluntary schemes recognition
AEBIOM position: 
• Revision clause: 2023 not acceptable. Need for certainty
• 20 MW threshold flexibility
• Land criteria for forest biomass
- Change the reference to harvesting permit
- Change the reference to High conservation value
- Clarify / delete point v)
- Others…
• Mention the Standing Forestry Committee in the core
text of the Directive (art. 31)
AEBIOM position: 
(a) the country in which forest biomass was harvested has national
and/or sub-national laws applicable in the area of harvest as well as
monitoring and enforcement systems in place
ensuring that:
i) harvesting is carried out in accordance to the conditions of the
harvesting permit within legally gazetted boundaries;
ii) forest regeneration of harvested areas takes place;
iii) areas of high conservation value, including wetlands and
peatlands, are protected;
iv) the impacts of forest harvesting on soil quality and biodiversity are
minimised; and
v) harvesting does not exceed the long-term production capacity of
the forest;
AEBIOM position: Pending
• GHG emissions savings:
- Endorse the EC approach ? OR Support a GHG emission treshold
per type of biomass?
- Propose a GHG emission savings requirement for existing
installations?
• LULUCF:
- Need for a robust and credible accounting of LULUCF emissions
a and removals to back up the carbon neutrality principle.
AEBIOM to not be in the front line for the trade aspects
AEBIOM position: Pending
• Biopower phasing out
- Accept the EC approach?
- Possibility to apply this article earlier on?
• Flexibility for MS to define additional national criteria
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Call for EU harmonisation of criteria: harmonisation in the EU
list of criteria but national flexibility for implementing these
criteria
Work organisation
• Start dialogue with European Parliament
• Thematic task forces
-> 5 persons maximum
-> Responsible for building AEBIOM technical and political position
-> Report to the sustainability WG
1) RBA for forest biomass
2) GHG emissions savings
3) Voluntary schemes
4) Governance
Work organisation
• Task forces reporting during a Webinar
-> Proposal 5th to 7th March
• Next WG meeting in Brussels
-> 12th April (before or after AEBIOM board)
-> tbc during webinar in March
AEBIOM communications: context
EU NGOs – Birdlife and T&E
AEBIOM communications: context
EU NGOs – Birdlife and T&E
AEBIOM communications
• AEBIOM plans to organise a study tour in Belgium for
European Parliament and Member States
- Difficult to set up a date yet (need for more information on
EU institutions work calendar)
• Discussion on a possible EU policy makers study tour
on bioenergy in district heating in Lithuania in May
AEBIOM communications
Thank you !
Fanny-Pomme LANGUE
Policy Director, AEBIOM
[email protected]