11 October 2024
On 8 October, we re-established our Regional Stakeholder Committee – Europe after a five-year pause in the vibrant city of Cologne. More than 130 participants and 16 speakers joined us, all united under a shared goal: shaping a more sustainable future for Europe!
Rob Vierhout, Chair of the ISCC Board, and Andreas Feige, Managing Director of ISCC, kickstarted the meeting with a welcome address that was followed by an insightful update and outlook of ISCC by Juliane Pohl, ISCC Senior System Manager. This included the positive technical assessment of the ISCC EU certification approach for RFNBOs and RCFs by the European Commission. In addition, the Guidance Document “Waste and Residues from Food and Food Processing”, that was created by the stakeholder working group on waste and residues, is now open to the public consultation until 13 December 2024.
Michael Lenzen, Advisor Energy, Networks and Certification at Netherlands Enterprise Agency, and Sascha Wüstenhöfer, Regulatory Advisor EU Low Carbon Fuels at Shell, shared insights on mass balance and allocation rules for renewable fuels. Michael Lenzen focused on energy grids as an efficient way of transporting large volumes of energy within and across national borders, and how they could be used for achieving national renewable energy targets without double-accounting of sustainability information. Sascha Wüstenhöfer spoke about the mass balance requirements of the RED and related legislations and provided an interpretation of the legal requirements into practical examples. Given the high complexity of the RED mass balance requirements, further guidance for auditors and companies is encouraged.
Subsequently, Jesus Lopez Lopez, Low Carbon Fuels Regulatory Manager at bp Oil International, talked about the ruling of the European Court of Justice on the interpretation of European Union law, based on a case between the French government and bp France on rules to determine the bio-content of co-processed fuels that was imported into France.
After the first coffee break, Kristina Nenov, Senior System Manager at ISCC, introduced TYC Connect, ISCC’s upcoming UDB service provider platform. “It is ISCC compliant and aligns with Union Database (UDB) requirements, features a one-click onboarding of company and certificate data from the ISCC HUB, and offers seamless upload of sourcing contacts, material uptake and transactions via csv file.” Kristina explained, highlighting the key benefits of TYC Connect. Interested in further information? Please watch the demo session here.
Following her presentation, we were pleased to welcome Galin Gentchev, Policy Officer at the European Commission. He presented the main concepts and state of play of the Union database for liquid and gaseous biofuels and joined us online. Galin also participated in the following panel discussion together with Tillmann Volz from the Association of German Biofuels, Robert Paulsson, Sustainability Specialist, at Lantmännen Biorefineries AB, and George Hall, Supply Chain Compliance Manager at Neste. The panelists welcomed the improvements in the UDB over the past year and reflected on the UDB training, testing and the implementation of new features in the database. Further discussions and exchange between all involved stakeholders (EC, Member States, Voluntary Schemes, certified companies using the UDB and Certification Bodies) should be intensified.
After the lunch break, Mila Strikova, Sustainability Manager at Vitol, addressed questions related to Bio-LNG certification via the interconnected EU grid; for instance, which minimum requirements for traceability must apply for the Proof of Sustainability (PoS).
Jamie Seymour, Low Carbon Fuels Regulatory Advisor at bp Oil International, talked about the forwarding of sustainability information for ship and aircraft operators and the need for approaches to share sustainability information from fuel suppliers down the supply chain, e.g. for claims under ReFuel EU regulations or the EU ETS. The Proof of Compliance as initiated by ISCC could be a useful tool for fuel suppliers to pass on sustainability characteristics in a controlled way.
Gemma Toop, Associate Director at Guidehouse, spoke about the guidance on the new feedstocks listed in the updated of Annex IX of the RED II that is currently developed with support by Guidehouse. The guidance will be focussing on how to verify that intermediate crops do not trigger demand for additional land and maintain soil organic matter and on the definition for severely degraded land. The guidance shall also be subject to a public consultation.
The final presentation was given by Dr Katharina Heidrich, ISCC Senior System Manager. She shared the latest updates on the ISCC EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) add-on which will be available end of October 2024. She summarised the content of the new regulation, presented obligations of operators and traders and discussed the role of certification schemes. The new ISCC EUDR add-on is designed to support System Users in complying with the EUDR. Although the European Commission proposed an additional 12 months delay of its deforestation regulation, companies are encouraged to start immediately with their preparation. Need more information about the EUDR add-on? Please click here.
Last but not least, we warmly welcome our new Co-chairs Sascha Wüstenhöfer (Shell) and Timo Huhtisaari (Glencore), who were elected at the end of meeting. As we hosted the event in Cologne, the home of ISCC, we ended the day with a networking reception in a traditional “Kölsch” brewery adding a special touch to the event.
We would like to thank all participants and speakers for the great meeting. We hope to see you all again next year!
Presentations from the meeting are available on our website.