Over 150 participants joined us on 26 November 2025 at the ISCC Regional Stakeholder Meeting Europe in Cologne, Germany. The conference offered a great opportunity to discuss latest developments and connect with fellow stakeholders. We greatly appreciated an engaging audience that asked plenty of questions and got into a meaningful and lively stakeholder exchange.
Co-Chairs Timo Huhtisaari, Low-Carbon Fuels Lead at Glencore and Sascha Wüstenhöfer, Europe Advisory Team Lead – Low Carbon Fuels at Shell opened the meeting with a warm welcome. Timo Huhtisaari emphasised the importance of clear incentives, robust regulation, and shared responsibility across all actors involved in decarbonisation – from Certification Bodies (CBs) and economic operators to Member States and the European Commission. He encouraged attendees to use the opportunity for real dialogue: “Do not travel to the city for nothing!”
Collaboration, Integrity, and Fraud Prevention Take Center Stage
Dr Jan Henke shared the objectives of the meeting: fostering collaboration and enabling networking. Since the previous conference in June, ISCC has issued and is working on several guidance documents, strengthened its integrity measures and expanded its activities in the growing field of RFNBO certification. By now, ISCC has issued 23 ISCC EU RFNBO certificates across nine different countries.
Galin Gentchev, Policy Officer at the European Commission, discussed ongoing challenges in ensuring robust sustainability certification in the EU, particularly in detecting and preventing irregularities and fraud. He identified key risk areas such as mislabelling of raw materials, irregular mass balance calculations, or uneven implementation of certification standards across different regions. He outlined several short-term measures, e.g., the full deployment of the UDB with a mandatory use deadline for all economic operators. The UDB dynamic statistics might help to identify areas of abnormal flows of raw materials or fuels. Medium-term measures can be a revised Implementing Regulation on sustainability certification with more detailed rules, higher competence requirements for auditors and more specific mass balance rules.
A lively panel featuring Stephan Baltin (Control Union), Nicole de Groot (Dutch Emission Authority), Jan Henke (ISCC), and Sascha Wüstenhöfer (Shell) discussed fraud prevention, UDB implementation and gaps in CB supervision. Stephan Baltin from Control Union and Nicole de Groot explained that the Member States supervise economic operators and CBs within their borders. However, CBs based in third countries remain largely unsupervised when conducting audits in third countries. Jan Henke says that ISCC’s global integrity programme helps closing this gap. ISCC Integrity Auditors operate worldwide and ISCC can impose sanctions on CBs, auditors and economic operators. However, cooperation between authorities, schemes and industry remains essential to prevent, detect and penalise fraud.
Sascha Wüstenhöfer said that some rules have become so complex that obligated parties, auditors and Member State authorities may not have the same understanding of these rules anymore. He also added that economic operators might interpret vague rules; it’s important to differentiate between intentional fraudulent behaviour and leveraging on unclear rules. He stressed the importance of the UDB as a tool that can greatly reduce opportunities for fraud:
“We need to address problems at the root cause. The UDB is the single most important tool on the way to increase integrity.”
A New Risk Tool and Strengthened Audit Standards
After the panel discussion, Andreas Feige, Director at ISCC, presented a comprehensive overview of ISCC’s risk mitigation strategies for waste- and residue-based supply chains. He explained that the registration check for new System Users is a very important tool to reduce risks right at the beginning. This measure involves duplicate checks and company verification, the consultation of internal watchlists, and a plausibility check of operational sites. It also includes an analysis of facility history, layout, and technological characteristics to confirm that operations are plausible.
He further introduced the upcoming risk tool, which is currently in a pilot phase with selected CBs. The tool will enable auditors to conduct pre-audit checks of sourcing contacts, e.g., by verifying the validity of Points of Origin, and more effectively identify cases of mislabelled material. He also reported that the ISCC Integrity Programme has continued to grow, now consisting of seven core team members supported by twelve regional experts, who together conducted more than 120 integrity assessments in 2025.
Iona Cheng, Head of CB Management at ISCC, outlined ISCC’s ongoing efforts to strengthen collaboration with CBs and further enhance audit quality. In 2025, ISCC hosted several Regional CB Feedback Meetings, which provided valuable insights from CBs. Soon, ISCC is preparing several improvements, including revised CB and auditor requirements, upgraded training courses, and a CB performance monitoring and evaluation.
Improving Biodiesel Audits, Refining Feedstock Definitions, and Advancements in Mass Balance Guidance
Christoph Gerlach, Sustainability Project Manager at Meo Carbon Solutions, presented several updates. He highlighted that the “biodiesel audit procedure improvement”, currently in its pilot phase, is designed to help auditors determine whether a biodiesel plant is technically capable of producing the declared products. Gerlach also provided an update from the Waste and Residues Working Group, which is refining definitions for various feedstocks such as used cooking oil. A key milestone in this work has been the proposal of five analytical parameters to characterise authentic UCO.
Following this, Dr Marina Pasteris, Sustainability Manager at ISCC, shared updates from the Mass Balance Working Group. She announced that the final version of the ISCC EU Mass Balance Guidance Document will soon be published, offering clearer rules and incorporating feedback from public consultations. She also discussed the integration of biomethane and BioLNG into the EU market.
Carlo Hamelick presented insights on the role of intermediate crops as an additional feedstock stream for biofuels. He noted that intermediate crops offer significant potential to enhance climate resilience, support EU policy objectives, and expand feedstock availability without competing with food production. However, he also emphasised that their implementation requires substantial investment, clear certification guidelines, and a multi-year timeframe: at least two to three years in regions where intermediate crops can most easily be used.
The meeting concluded with final remarks from Norbert Schmitz, Managing Director at ISCC, who underscored the importance of continued cooperation and dialogue among all stakeholders. Participants then enjoyed a well-attended networking reception to round off the day.
A big thank you goes to all speakers and attendees for their engagement, valuable contributions, and lively discussions. We look forward to seeing you at the next meeting!