Union Database (UDB)

Update from 08 March 2024

­We are pleased to invite you to the next three European Commission’s Union Database (UDB) Demonstration Sessions, hosted and moderated by ISCC, on the following dates:  

26 March 2024, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm, fully booked
04 April 2024, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm, fully booked
11 April 2024, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm­, fully booked

Participation:
These trainings are designed for users of the ISCC System. We welcome one representative per company/organisation and will accommodate a maximum of 100 participants per session. A minimum of 1 active ISCC EU certificate is required and priority will be given to the first 50 ISCC members for each session.

Training Setting:
The registration for all three sessions is closed due to capacity. We will publish further information shortly.

The meeting link will be sent after a successful registration. The trainings will be hosted by ISCC in Zoom and conducted by the European Commission, with attendance monitored to ensure a smooth experience. 

During each session, there will be a UDB live presentation and Q&A session following the UDB manual, covering topics such as initial stock, sourcing contacts, Point of Origin trade, seller transactions, and material processing. Questions can be submitted via Slido and will be addressed live according to relevance (as voted by the audience).

To fully benefit from your session, it is important to read the available manuals and watch the demos, which can be found here.

Recording:
Please note that if you are unable to attend any of the upcoming demo sessions, you can access a comprehensive recording of the session in our client section (log-in required).

We look forward to your attendance and participation in these informative sessions. 

Update from 16 February 2024

Update: The limit on the number of participants has been reached. We will inform you soon about further dates. Thank you for your participation!

We are pleased to invite you to the European Commission’s Union Database (UDB) Demonstration Session, hosted and moderated by ISCC, to be held on 26 February 2024, from 2 pm to 4 pm (UTC+1). 
 
Participants:
This training is designed for users of the ISCC System. We welcome one representative per company/organisation and will accommodate a maximum of 100 participants on 26 February 2024. A minimum of 1 active ISCC EU certificate is required and priority will be given to the first 50 ISCC members.
 
Training Setting:
To facilitate your participation, ISCC has streamlined the process:
 
Please register for the training in advance here on the ISCC website. The meeting link will be sent after a successful registration. The training will be hosted by ISCC in Zoom and conducted by the European Commission, with attendance monitored to ensure a smooth experience. 
 
During the session, there will be an UDB live presentation and Q&A session following the UDB manual. This covers topics such as initial stock, sourcing contacts, Point of Origin trade, seller transactions, and material processing. Questions can be submitted via Slido in the backend. 
 
To fully benefit from the session, it is important to read the available demos and manuals, which can be found here.
 
Further demonstration sessions will be announced soon. We look forward to your attendance and participation in this informative session. 

Update from 06 February 2024

ISCC is currently in discussions with the European Commission (EC) regarding the timing and format of upcoming UDB trainings. These discussions are in response to concerns raised following the initial training session held on 1 February. ISCC acknowledges the feedback received from participants and seeks to clarify key aspects related to the UDB training and implementation.

It is important to note that the UDB training is conducted by the EC, not by ISCC. Therefore, ISCC cannot address inquiries regarding UDB requirements established by the EC.

ISCC is committed to the success of the UDB implementation and underlines its strong interest in supporting a timely start. Transparency is crucial in this process, and ISCC stresses the importance of being transparent about the development readiness of the database. To ensure a smooth launch, it is important that all recognised Voluntary Schemes are able to update the validity of certificates in real time.

As part of the UDB implementation plan, the eDelivery onboarding process for service and access point providers on the UDB side is scheduled to begin no earlier than 26 February 2024. Therefore, the automatic transfer of Economic Operators and certificate data will not begin before this date. This can only happen once the function has been successfully tested and is operationally stable for the majority of certificates across all Voluntary Schemes, allowing to start with the initial stock registrations and transactions.

ISCC will inform all System Users as soon as a solution for future UDB training has been discussed with the EC UDB team.

Update from 19 January 2024

The European Commission’s (EC) UDB Team will conduct four training sessions for the ISCC EU certified System Users. All four training sessions will cover the same information and content.

Please note that the trainings are organised and will be held by the European Commission’s UDB Team. 

Kindly find below the dates and time slots for the training:

1st February – 14:00 – 15:00 CET
Meeting link
Password: bDRrM2gP4@8

Upcoming Dates:
8th February – 14:00 – 15:00 CET, 13th February – 14:00 – 15:00 CET and 15th February – 14:00 – 15:00 CET

For those unable to attend any of the training sessions, the EC UDB Team has gladly provided videos. All demo videos and user guides can be found on the EC UDB public wiki page.

The UDB team has also provided a dedicated FAQ page.

According to the EC UDB team, a prerequisite for the training participants would be to read the user guides carefully and watch the associated videos before the training. The objective of the training would be to summarise all the features that can be performed online and to answer specific questions not already covered in the user guide or the short videos.

Update from 19 December 2023

The EC UDB Team has confirmed that the official start date of opening the application has been postponed until 15 January 2024 to allow a smoother start and better support to the Economic Operators. This means that the UDB application will be available to all successfully registered Economic Operators for transactions registration in the liquid fuels supply chain as from 15 January 2024.

Please note that the UDB must be set up and fully operational to enable the tracing of liquid and gaseous renewable fuels by 21 November 2024, as stated in the Article 31 a of the revised RED II.

The UDB team has also confirmed that they will provide training sessions per voluntary schemes after 15 January 2024. A pre-requisite for the participants would be to carefully read the user guides and the associated videos, which will be provided by the UDB team by 15 January 2024. ISCC is currently clarifying the details and the timeline for the trainings. Once this has been defined and coordinated with the UDB team, ISCC we inform all its system users.   

ISCC awaits confirmation regarding the UDB design freeze by the UDB team. After confirmation, testing of the UI and eDelivery services will be performed. Based on the test findings, all related applications (e.g. the ISCC HUB and the ISCC Transaction Database) will need to be adapted and tested again. After the changes have been implemented, ISCC will conduct pilots with various system users. 

Additionally, ISCC has requested the promotion to the UDB production environment in order to connect the ISCC HUB and transfer organizational and certificate data. The promotion is still pending. 

Update from 27 November 2023

Completion of the process of onboarding of Economic Operators (EOs)
The process of onboarding of EOs will have to be completed by 3 January 2024. In this respect Economic Operators which after the official launch of the system on 3 January 2024 would either not be registered at all in the UDB or would not have provided all the required information to complete their registration, will not be able to start using the UDB. This status will be considered to be in breach of the legal obligations of  Economic Operators in accordance with Article 28(2) of the Renewable Energy Directive (EU) 2018/2001 (RED II) “to enter in a timely manner accurate data into the Union database on the transactions made and the sustainability characteristics of the fuels subject to those transactions, including their life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions”. Article 17.1(c) of the Implementing Regulation on sustainability certification (1) further elaborates and specifies this legal obligation, which Voluntary Schemes need to pass to the Economic Operators certified by them. 

Voluntary schemes are urged to take proportionate actions to remedy such situations by suspending the sustainability certificates of those economic operators who would be in the situation described above on 3 January 2024.

In a communication from 22 May 2023 ISCC informed all ISCC EU certified system users about their obligation to onboard and has provided them with a template to be filled in and sent back to us. If you have not done it yet, ISCC kindly reminds you to fill in the template and send it back to us at the latest by 11 December 2023. Please note that according to the information provided in point 3, non-responding to ISCC communication will be treated as major-non-conformity. This means that the System User will be sanctioned with the suspension of the certificate in the event of no response received or action taken within the provided timeline.

Scope of traceability of UDB regarding transactions in the supply chain of liquid fuels
The scope of the traceability system of the UDB in the supply chain of liquid fuels will start from the first gathering point/collecting point of the raw material/ biomass until the respective fuels are put on the market in the EU. This means that first gathering points and collecting points will be the first economic operators to enter consignments of raw materials in the UDB. To ensure their traceability, all the points of origin (e.g., farmers, restaurants) that are supplying a respective first gathering points/collecting point will have to be registered in the UDB.

Gaseous fuels supply chain in UDB
In order to complete the preparation of the UDB, all Economic Operators will have to be onboarded by the end of 2023. However, the launch of the application to register injection and consumption of energy units from the supply chain of gaseous fuels will only start after the technical links between UDB and respective national registries of Guarantees of Origin (GOs) will be established.

Integration/link of UDB with existing national databases
The UDB team already launched a technical process with all Member States which have expressed their interest to use the option of linking their national databases to the UDB. The objective of the UDB team is to establish the technical pre-conditions and proceed with the effective technical linking before the launch of the system in January 2024.

Public wiki page
The UDB team has created a publicly available wiki page. There you can find, among others, functional information, training materials and FAQ.

Update from 09 June 2023

We would like to provide you with an update on the current implementation process of the UDB and what has been done in the previous weeks:

• Besides daily communication with the European Commission to discuss and finalize details within the UDB, ISCC has created a template in line with the UDB requirements to collect additional information, needed for the onboarding of Economic Operators into the UDB (e.g., materials and GHG values per scope, name and addresses of the sites covered by certificate, etc.). This template has been already provided to our ISCC EU system users via an e-mail on 22 May 2023. ISCC kindly reminds you to fill it out and send it back to us if you have not done it yet. Please note that without this information we cannot proceed further with your onboarding into the UDB. Once the UDB is actively operational, ISCC will be collecting this data online via the ISCC Hub during the registration and certification stages and streamlining the UDB onboarding promptly via system-to-system connection.
• In the template provided the National Trade Register Identifier (NTR ID) has been requested as well. This ID is required by the UDB for the Economic Operators to uniquely identify themselves to other parties (sellers/buyers) so that UDB can ensure consistency across all Voluntary Schemes. The NTR type is differentiated per country. If the NTR type for your country is missing, please let us know and we will request it from the EC UDB team.
• The UDB FAQ page has been updated and can be found on the ISCC website.
• ISCC has been collaborating with several Access Point (AP) providers to enable direct communication with the UDB e-delivery. Details and technical information will be made available mid-June to enable system users whose backend systems are ready for system-to-system communication integration to onboard an AP.

Update from 17 April 2023

We would like to provide you with an update on the current implementation process of the UDB.

On 16 January, ISCC began the onboarding process of Economic Operators (EOs) into the Union Database (UDB). Since then, the majority of EOs and their certificates have been added to the UDB. Automated daily onboarding is not yet possible, but ISCC and the European Commission’s (EC) UDB team are in daily communication to establish this interface. ISCC will act as a Service Provider (SP), with a customized platform enabling our system users to meet UDB requirements in a user-friendly manner. We are pleased to report that a stable connection is already established with the UDB, however, since ISCC still receives errored data back from the UDB, the exchange cannot yet be described as operational. We continue to work closely with the EC UDB team and IT providers to establish a functioning system to system communication.

In parallel we are finalizing the Access Point Provider (AP-Provider) to the UDB that will allow system users to directly connect their IT systems to the UDB. We expect to open our Access Point (AP) for a system-to-system connection to the UDB acceptance environment within a month, after the AP-Provider receives the respective certificate. Opening of the production environment will depend on the timeline from the UDB team. Following the launch of the ISCC Service Provider Platform and once an operational system-to-system exchange with valid responses is established, ISCC will provide training materials and videos to facilitate a smooth onboarding process.

Further digitization efforts are underway with the development of the ISCC Hub, an online platform that will complement our current client section on the ISCC website. In the ISCC HUB system users will be able to register themselves and edit their registration data. CBs will be able to oversee registrations, upload certificates with audit packages and more. This application will minimize the need for email communication with ISCC about registration data and certificates.

Update from 22 March 2023

The European Commission has provided a presentation that includes links to the recordings and slides of the webinars conducted in March 2023.

Update from 14 March 2023

ISCC Update Regarding the Timeline of the Union Database

We are pleased to share an important update regarding the Union Database (UDB) launch timeline. In the webinar “Registration of all types of transactions & PoS” held by the European Commission (EC) on 8 March 2023, the EC stated that there are no legal deadlines for the launch of the UDB and that 2023 is a transition year to monitor the processes within the UDB and determine how the system will work. In an updated chart titled “Onboarding & Transition (updated)”, the EC also stated that the dates listed “are not deadlines but the availability of the application at various stages considering the complexity of the exercise with aim to be fully operational by Q4 23”. The updated table can be found below. Please note, that the EC also stated that even though there are no legal deadlines to complete the different tasks, all Economic Operators (EOs) are advised to start immediately.

Update from 07 March 2023

ISCC has published answers to the most frequently asked questions about the Union Database (UDB). Together with answers to questions from other areas, they can be found on the FAQ page of the ISCC website. The FAQs are updated regularly.

Update from 28 February 2023

We would like to inform you that the European Commission (EC) will hold two 1,5-hour long webinars on 8 and 9 March 2023. The first webinar on 8 March will cover the topic “For EO and Schemes: Liquid fuel (online) – Registration of all types of transactions & PoS” and the second one on 9 March will cover the topic “For EO & Schemes – UDB Liquid fuel trade registration Training (eDelivery)”. Please note that the webinars are set up and conducted by the EC, not by ISCC. We kindly refer you to these webinars and recommend attending them.

Please find below all relevant information on the webinars:

First webinar:

Webinar topic: For EO and Schemes: Liquid fuel (online) – Registration of all types of transactions & PoS

Date and time: Wednesday, Mar 8, 2023 10:30 am | (UTC+01:00) Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris

Duration: 1,5 hours

Join link: https://ecconf.webex.com/ecconf/j.php?MTID=m8bfb3acbe1b249f99a638b35f10be6be

Webinar number: 2743 230 0365

Webinar password: gxQtEVg@632 (49783841 from phones)

Join by phone

+32-262-00867 Belgium Toll

+352-2730-0072 Luxembourg Toll

Access code: 274 323 00365

Second webinar:

Webinar topic: For EO & Schemes – UDB Liquid fuel trade registration Training (eDelivery)

Date and time: Thursday, Mar 9, 2023 2:00 pm | (UTC+01:00) Brussels, Copenhagen, Madrid, Paris

Duration: 1,5 hours

Join link: https://ecconf.webex.com/ecconf/j.php?MTID=m34baf29b5fcb4b0e9322234564d57ec5

Webinar number: 2741 815 6298

Webinar password: D6MwG9PPK?6 (36694977 from phones)

Join by phone

+32-262-00867 Belgium Toll

+352-2730-0072 Luxembourg Toll

Access code: 274 181 56298

Update from 13 February 2023

ISCC Update Regarding the Union Database

According to a communication of the European Commission (EC), ISCC as a Voluntary Scheme (VS) is responsible for the onboarding of Economic Operators (EOs) holding an ISCC EU certificate into the Union Database (UDB). This onboarding into the UDB was scheduled to begin on 16 January 2023. Since then, ISCC has started to fulfill its responsibility in the onboarding process by registering individual EOs in the UDB.

Over the past few weeks, we have understandably received many questions from our system users about many issues, especially the onboarding process. Since many of these points were also still unclear to us, we had to discuss them with the EC to clarify the underlying processes and exact details. As we are now in the process of finalizing the onboarding process with the EC, we will provide a detailed explanation of the onboarding process within a week to all ISCC EU certified system users.

We would also like to reconfirm that ISCC will become a Service Provider (SP) once the UDB is fully operational and the organizational and legal requirements for SPs (e.g. on governance, IT security and data protection) have been clarified.

We would also like to once again highlight our continuous commitment to support the EC in every possible way in the development and testing of the UDB. From the very beginning of developing the UDB, ISCC has been an active participant in workshops and stakeholder meetings set up by the EC and has been in continuous discussions about the UDB, both with the EC and other stakeholders. In the past year, ISCC has further intensified its efforts as we address the UDB as a topic of utmost importance. We work very closely with the dedicated UDB team and the Policy Officers of the EC.

More information can be found at the ISCC website under Essential Information on the Union Database. There you can also participate in a survey on ISCC EU system users’ preferences for connecting to the UDB.

Update from 12 January 2023

ISCC Update Regarding the Union Database

The RED II envisions the application of a “Union Database” (UDB) for biofuels and bioliquids (see Art. 28(2) Directive (EU) 2018/2001 – RED II). According to the proposed schedule by the European Commission (EC), onboarding of Voluntary Schemes (VSs) and Economic Operators (EOs) shall start on 16 January 2023 and from 3 April 2023, liquid biofuel transactions are to be registered in the UDB. The onboarding of EOs comprises the transfer of EO basic data and certificate specifics and will be handled by the VS (no action from EOs required).

From the very beginning of developing the UDB, ISCC has been an active participant in workshops and stakeholder meetings set up by the EC and has been in continuous discussions about the UDB, both with the EC and other stakeholders.

In July 2022 ISCC declared its intent to act as a Service Provider (SP) for the UDB (see our Updates of 22 October and 25 August 2022) and has been intensively testing the UDB and its functionalities since then.

In our assessment, the UDB platform is still far from a stable and technically mature state that would allow a start of operation. Also, many organisational and governance issues are still unresolved. To name but a few examples:

• Testing of realistic REDII compliant supply chain scenarios from the point of origin (material uptake) down to quota obligated parties has not been possible.
• The integration of Member States’ databases is still in its infancy. Without such integration EOs may have to process the same biofuel batch in at least two databases.
• The ‘harmonized’ materials list with more than 500 items is a good starting point but currently not aligned with Member State codes and wording.
• The system-to-system communication between EOs and the UDB and the expected role of VSs is still unclear and undefined and raises a lot of operational concerns.
• Comprehensive training as one of the prerequisites for the successful onboarding of more than 12.000 Economic Operators under 14 different VSs is not reflected appropriately in the proposed timeline.
• Tasks and responsibilities of SPs, provisions and requirements regarding data security, scope and period of data storage etc. are not legally defined yet.

For these reasons, ISCC will not be able to act as an SP and will have to refrain from doing so for the time being until a stable and reliable UDB system environment has been implemented by the EC and the framework conditions for SPs have been clearly defined. We want to stress our firm commitment for establishing an SP platform as soon as possible.

For the same reasons, ISCC also does not see itself in a position to approve third-party SPs at this point in time.

ISCC has urged the European Commission to adjust the proposed timeline for the start of operations of the UDB to avoid damage to all parties involved, including EOs, Certification Bodies and VSs, and Member States, but also the transport biofuel market as such. In our view, it must be ensured that a stable system environment and clearly defined and reliable interfaces are available at the time the UDB goes live, relevant governance and IT issues are settled, and Certification Bodies and Economic Operators can be sufficiently trained before onboarding begins.

We have raised these issues with the European Commission in a letter in the first week of January 2023 and at the same time signalled that ISCC remains more than willing to assist the European Commission in any way possible in the development and testing of the UDB.

Update from 11 October 2022

ISCC Digitalisation Processes

ISCC as Service Provider for the UDB

ISCC’s service provider platform for the Union Database is designed to be a lean and efficient interface with a focus on enabling users to upload the required information regarding their company and its transactions to the UDB with ease. In this way, ISCC will contribute to improved traceability in biofuel and bioliquid supply chains.  

The platform developed by ISCC will serve as an interface to the UDB, as opposed to an additional database, with focus on facilitating the communication of information to the UDB and allowing users to view information relevant to them from the UDB in a clear and concise layout. Ensuring that the UDB remains the sole database in this environment contributes to the consistency of data and stock calculations. 

ISCC system users will be automatically registered in the ISCC platform to remove yet another hurdle to interacting with the UDB, which underlines ISCC’s commitment to minimizing additional effort on the part of system users linked to the mandatory implementation of the UDB. 

In terms of data security, ISCC has ensured that all servers hosting our platform are located in Europe, which ensures that all data handling is in line with GDPR rules (although there will be no personal data saved!). Data security is also improved by only saving the data which is essential for the transfer of transactions to the UDB. Finally, all transfers are encrypted in line with the industry standard. 

ISCC is in the process of planning and conducting pilot projects with some key partners to test its functions and identify ways to further improve the platform’s user-friendliness and utility for the economic operators that will be using it. In this context, ISCC is very thankful for the support being provided to us by the companies who are taking part in the pilots. 

ISCC will also be instrumental in providing mobile apps for the first uptake of eligible material into the platform both for agricultural commodities as well as waste / residues such as UCO and POME. The use of these apps will increase the data integrity and at the same time support third party audits. 

ISCC Registration and Document Submission System

A further element of ISCC’s digitalisation efforts is the development of an online system which will improve the current processes for registering new system users and submitting audit documents. The registration process will incorporate automated due diligence checks to improve confidence in the veracity of ISCC system users. Beyond this, system users and certification bodies will be able to update company information themselves to reduce the burden of communicating changes to ISCC by email. Finally, there will be an interface for submitting audit packages which will display the required documents based on the specific audit based on the answers in the APS audit and the scope of the certification. 

Update from 25 August 2022

The RED II envisions the application of a “Union database” (UDB) for biofuels and bioliquids. The database is currently being developed by the European Commission (EC). In this framework, ISCC is presently working on various topics:

ISCC is setting up a tool for making registration and certification more efficient for CBs and System Users

The digitalization of certification processes presents challenges, such as the increasing documentation requirements by the EC. ISCC is working on facilitating workflows and at the same time providing system users with the means to seamlessly demonstrate that their actions are sustainable. For this, a new online data management tool is currently in the making. ISCC will provide more information in due time.

ISCC will act as a Service Provider (SP) for all ISCC System Users and will also offer this service to other Voluntary Schemes (VS) and their Economic Operators (EO)

With the ISCC application, that will be linked to the UDB, the process of data provision for system users will be facilitated. ISCC System Users, as well as other EOs and VSs will have the exclusive choice of the ISCC application for the transfer of their data.

ISCC is conducting pilots to adapt the system to user needs

ISCC is conducting pilot projects to test the data flow from economic operators to the service provider system.

ISCC will keep you updated about the development process and timeline of the UDB in System Updates and on this page. Please kindly note that it is not known yet when the UDB will become operational.

Update from 22 July 2022

The RED II envisions the application of a “Union database” (UDB) for biofuels and bioliquids (see Art. 28(2) Directive (EU) 2018/2001 – RED II). The database aims to ensure the tracing of liquid and gaseous transport fuels that are eligible for being counted towards the share of renewable energy in the transport sector in any Member State. The database is currently being developed by the European Commission (EC). Once it has started its official operation, relevant system users are required to provide specified information to the UDB on sustainability and GHG emissions savings characteristics that are related to batches of sustainable material transferred along the supply chain.

ISCC is an active participant in workshops and is in continuous discussions about the UDB with the EC and other stakeholders. ISCC has already set up a database to facilitate the process of data provision for system users and is working to link this database to the UDB, i.e. ISCC will also facilitate the process as service provider (SP). As soon as the development process by the EC has proceeded so that the role of the SP and its interaction with the UDB is more clearly defined, ISCC may reach out to system users to participate in pilots.

ISCC will keep you updated about the development process and timeline of the UDB. Please kindly note that it is not known yet when the UDB will become operational.