ifeu – Institut für Energie- und Umweltforschung Heidelberg

1. ifeu – Institut für Energie- und Umweltforschung Heidelberg Expert meeting on biodiversity standards and strategies for sustainable cultivation of biomass for non-food purposes12-15March 2008 - Vilm Island Relevant legal initiatives within the EU – incl. the provisions of the German “Biomass Sustainability Ordinance” and its need for operationalisation Horst Fehrenbach

2. Legal Initiatives Directives in preparation by the EU Commission: • Proposal for:Directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources, RES Directive [COM(2008) 19 final] 23.01.2008 • Proposal for amending the:Fuel Quality Directive; FQ Directive [98/70/EC] Regulation by the German Government:Biomass Sustainability Ordinance, BSO, draft from 05.12.07

3. Further Legal Initiatives Implementation of mandatory reporting systems for sustainable biomass in: • the Netherlands(“Testing framework” according to the results of the Cramer Commission) • the United Kingdom (Requirements and Guidance for the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) referring to a set of criteria +/- equivalent to the Dutch)

4. Further Legal Initiatives Implementation of mandatory reporting systems for sustainable biomass in: • the Netherlands(“Testing framework” according to the results of the Cramer Commission) • the United Kingdom(Requirements and Guidance for the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) referring to a set of criteria +/- equivalent to the Dutch)

5. EU legislation RES Directive (drafted by DG TREN): Article 15: Environmental sustainability criteria for biofuels and other bioliquids Article 16: Verification of compliance with the environmental sustainability criteria … Article 17: Calculation of the greenhouse gas impact of biofuels and other bioliquids. Annex VII: Rules for calculating the greenhouse gas impact…

6. EU legislation Fuel Quality Directive (drafted by DG ENVI): Sustainability criteria and GHG shall be identical with RES Dir – at the end of the day! • Ad-hoc Working Group is announced to draw up the core sustainability criteria for both directives within a strict time frame (started end of Feb. 08) • Open game: possibly additional criteria addressing indirect land use change or social-economic issues.

7. EU legislation RES Directive Article 15 (3) Biofuels and other bioliquids taken into account for the purposes referred to in paragraph 1 shall not be made from raw material obtained from land with recognised high biodiversity value, that is to say land that had one of the following statuses in or after January 2008, whether or not the land still has this status: (a) forest undisturbed by significant human activity, that is to say, forest where there has been no known significant human intervention or where the last significant human intervention was sufficiently long ago to have allowed the natural species composition and processes to have become re-established; (b) areasdesignated for nature protection purposes, unless evidence is provi- ded that the production of that raw material did not interfere with those purposes; (c) highly biodiverse grassland, that is to say grassland that is species-rich, not fertilised and not degraded. The Commission shall establish the criteria and geographic ranges to determine which grassland shall be covered by point (c). Such a measure designed to amend non-essential elements of this Directive shall be adopted in accordance with the regulatory procedure with scrutiny referred to in Article 21(3).

8. EU legislation RES Directive Article 15 (4) Biofuels and other bioliquids taken into account for the purposes referred to in paragraph 1 shall not be made from raw material obtained from land with high carbon stock, that is to say land that had one of the following statuses in January 2008 and no longer has this status: (a) wetlands, that is to say land that is covered with or saturated by water permanently or for a significant part of the year, including pristine peatland; (b) continuously forested areas, that is to say land spanning more than 1 ha with trees higher than 5 metres and a canopy cover of more than 30%, or trees able to reach these thresholds in situ; The provisions in this paragraph shall not apply if at the time the raw material was obtained, the land had the same status as it had in January 2008.

9. EU legislation RES Directive Article 15 (5) Agricultural raw materials cultivated in the Community and used for the production of biofuels and other bioliquids taken into account for the purposes referred to in paragraph 1, shall be obtained in accordance with the requirements and standards under the provisions listed in point A of Annex III to Council Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003 under the heading "Environment" and in accordance with the minimum requirements for good agricultural and environmental condition defined pursuant to Article 5(1) of that Regulation. RES Directive Article 15 (7) The Commission shall report on requirements for a sustainability scheme for energy uses of biomass, other than biofuels and other bioliquids, by 31 December 2010 at the latest.

10. German legislation Biomass Sustainability Ordinance(BSO): Section 2: Sustainable cultivation of agricultural land Section 3: Protection of natural habitats Section 4: Greenhouse gas reduction potential Annex 1: Rules for calculating the greenhouse gas impact… Annex 2: GHG Default values

11. German legislation • Section 2 - Sustainable cultivation of agricultural land (3) The requirements […] shall also be regarded as fulfilled if, in the absence of the equivalent laws and regulations […] the following requirements, in particular, with effect on global protectable natural resources are met in producing the biomass used in the production of the biofuels: 1. no significant increase in emissions of acidic, eutrophic, ozone-depleting or toxic substances; 2. no significant deterioration of soil function or soil fertility (e.g. preservation of organic substance, protection against erosion); 3. no significant deterioration of water quality and water supply; 4. no significant deterioration of species and ecosystem diversityand 5. environmentally safe use of fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides.

12. German legislation • Section 3 – Protection of natural habitats (1) The requirements pertaining to the protection of natural habitats […] shall be regarded as fulfilled if the biomass used is not grown in nature reserves or in areas which had been identified as of 1.1.2005 as areas of high natural conservation value (NCV) or subsequently declared as such. (2) Areas of high NCV are areas which, as rare ecosystems, have significant NCV or serve as habitats for particularly rare species of plants or animals. These areas are characterized by one or more of the following features: • areas which exhibit, in globally or regionally significant levels, accumulations of protectable resources of relevance to biodiversity (e.g. endemic or endangered species, refuges); • areas which lie in globally or regional rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems or which encompass such ecosystems; • areas which serve fundamental protective functions.

13. Recommendations from German Research Project

14. Conclusion • Biodiversity is the most often noted claim next to GHG savings. • Whereas GHG is easily furnished with methods, schemes and data, biodiversity lacks of: • clear definitions • schemes how to identify the crucial sites. • There is still plenty of work to do until legal requirements (e.g. EU RES Directive) will be operational in certification practice.