October 31, 2023

On 25 October 2023, the 13th ISCC Regional Stakeholder Meeting – Southeast Asia took place as a hybrid event in Jakarta, with 133 attendees onsite and more than 210 attendees joining remotely. The event was well moderated by Amalia Anindia (Project Manager, Proforest), who was accompanied by the two committee Co-Chairs, Dr Haskarlianus Pasang and Michael Chong for the introduction and summary. Andreas Feige, Managing Director at ISCC also supported the event.

This day was particularly interesting due to the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), which drew many attendees to this meeting. The European Parliament recently adopted this regulation, introducing mandatory due diligence requirements. The meeting enabled participants to gain a comprehensive understanding of the implications and challenges this regulation poses for Southeast Asia as well as how the ISCC certification scheme offers support. To address these challenges, ISCC presented its EUDR Add-On, which provides a solution for organisations to comply with the EUDR requirements. The Add-On is composed of multiple essential components: 

Andreas Feige, Managing Director of ISCC System, emphasises the importance of enabling stakeholders, be they smallholders or larger companies, to comply with regulations. What applies in Europe today will soon be relevant worldwide, and compliance is inevitable. They need to embrace it sooner rather than later. 

This event also provided an update on the Union Database (UDB). ISCC is in the process of onboarding its system users. Currently, we have almost 50% active Economic Operators (EOs) in the UDB. 

Steps have been taken to speed up the onboarding process, including reminders that actions will be taken and implemented by Certification Bodies (CBs) in cases where EOs do not cooperate. However, ISCC anticipates the onboarding process will be completed by the end of 2023.

The day concluded with an in-depth exploration of the solutions that ISCC delivers for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). Continuing on this subject, Lee Ee Pin, Key Account Manager for APAC Renewable Aviation at Neste, offered insights into the challenges and opportunities related to SAF in the Southeast Asia region.

We extend our thanks to the distinguished speakers for their insightful contributions, to the attendees for their keen interest and thought-provoking queries, and to all those who have contributed to the successful outcome of this event. We eagerly anticipate your presence at our forthcoming stakeholder meetings!