Yuliia Shumeiko, Author at Bioenergy Europe

Bioenergy Europe condemns the attack on Ukraine

Yuliia Shumeiko — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 11:33:00 +0000

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Towards an Integrated Energy System: Assessing Bioenergy’s Socio-Economic and Environmental Impact

Yuliia Shumeiko — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 11:38:00 +0000

Bioenergy is a very versatile and flexible solution that can assist the main challenges of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 with job creation and economic growth. Each additional Mtoe of biomass for energy could lead to an impact of 359 million euros in terms of GDP and an employment creation of 7.376 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE), on average, while preventing 2,4 MtCO2eq emissions due to the replacement of fossil fuels for energy.

Currently, millions of citizens rely on bioenergy to heat their homes, not only through individual heating systems but also through collective systems, such as district heating. Moreover, many industrial processes, especially within wood-related industries, such as the paper and pulp industries, rely on reusing their residues to supply energy to their processes. In the future, the number of citizens and industries that rely on the use of bioenergy will increase as further development of this renewable source is required to achieve the EU emissions targets for 2030 and 2050.

Deloitte has analysed the future role of bioenergy in achieving climate neutrality, as well as its contribution to society considering the socio-economic and environmental impacts not only today but also on the 2050 horizon. The assessment carried out estimates the impact of bioenergy on the economy in terms of GDP and employment creation, paying particular attention to its effect on the rural environment, while also considering the impacts of bioenergy on the mitigation of carbon emissions, the contribution to forest health, the security of the energy supply and the development of a circular economy as well as the complementarities of bioenergy with other renewable energies and the adoption of clean hydrogen solutions.

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Bioenergy Sustainability Review: Untie our feet so we can run a good race

Yuliia Shumeiko — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 11:54:00 +0000

Sustainably sourced biomass and its efficient use for energy applications is a key part of the EU delivering on its climate ambitions, consistent with both the 2018 IPCC special report and the European Commission’s own models underpinning the Fit for 55 Package and Green Deal.

Building upon this need for increased bioenergy input in the coming years, the European Commission has developed a strengthened sustainability policy to mitigate any associated risks to biodiversity.

Currently, EU Member States have not yet finished transposing the preceding REDII criteria on biomass sustainability, meaning there has been no feedback period on the impacts of these changes. As with many other similar policy evolutions, such a feedback period and its resulting, evidence-based policy refinements inevitably lead to clearer, more workable policies.

The bioenergy sector is well-placed helping Europe run a good race towards its Fit for 55 goals and beyond. That said, the current policy review on bioenergy sustainability presents a real risk of starting this ever more important race with our feet tied together. If the current policy review wants to ensure that biomass is sourced and used sustainably, it must provide clear and workable definitions so that a willing and capable bioenergy sector can successfully operationalise the resulting requirements.

Clear and workable means a risk-based approach (RBA), adequate time and the right level of regulatory certainty.

The EU needs to maintain this approach as the core principle of biomass sustainability compliance, for best combining efficiency and sustainability.

Why risk-based? As recognised by the OECD, this methodology produces a clear win-win: For the environment through minimised risk of negative environmental impact, and for market operators by providing a more effective, pragmatic regulatory framework that lowers excessive red tape.

The EU also needs to ensure via a phasing in of the requirements that all market players, from leading companies to the many SMEs, have adequate time to comply with the new requirements. Sufficient time is also needed to develop, evaluate, and mainstream the necessary tools to verify this compliance.

In parallel, the EU needs to provide the right level of regulatory certainty that any market needs to facilitate its all-important current and future investment. This means avoiding any retroactive changes.

Building on this clear and workable approach, we have five clear opportunities to further evolve the European Commission’s proposed review of Bioenergy Sustainability Policy:

1. Protect highly biodiverse and carbon-rich environments in the most effective way

Such areas should be included under the risk-based approach in former Article 29(6). The Commission’s current proposal is based on a methodology developed for agricultural land use rather than forest, which is not the best fit in this case.

Empowering Member States to legislate themselves with a proven risk-based approach will properly ensure both a high level of environmental protection and operability for market players of all sizes.

Equally, definitions of these areas should be unambiguous, and based on existing international-level classifications as well as in accordance with the definitions and mapping in use at Member State level.

1. Keep forestry as a Member State competence

Consistent with the subsidiarity principle, national, regional, or local authorities, including those of third countries, should deal with provisions regulating specifics of sustainable forest management, rather than European energy legislation. This is consistent with the recent Council conclusions on the Forest Strategy that clearly stated, “a one-size fits all approach to forests in the EU may prove counterproductive.”

Minimising impacts on biodiversity and soil quality is essential. Any such requirements need to work for all forest types, irrespective of where in the world the biomass originates.

This means basing definitions on existing and widely accepted ones that can be applied locally, and ensuring the related tools are detailed at the national, regional, or local level to make sure the policy actions really deliver.

1. Guidance represents the optimal pathway to preventing undue raw material distortions

It is important that markets have the necessary flexibility to adapt to local conditions in different Member States and are not unduly burdened by excessive regulations.

For this reason, a guidance is a better policy tool to influence the market than a delegated act which risks creating disruptions all along the forest value chain.

The European Commission has previously seen fit to regulate this matter with a guidance as demonstrated by issuing the 2018 Guidance on cascading use of biomass.

1. Proportional requirements for operators’ administrative capacity

Lowering the exemption threshold to cover smaller biomass plants (from 20 MW to 10 MW thermal capacity) would certify the sustainability of a larger portion of biomass, while importantly avoiding undue regulatory burdens and disproportionate costs of compliance for the smallest market actors with scarce administrative capacity.

Yet, the impact of such policy decision should be properly addressed and assessed: In addition to the number of plants covered by the sustainability requirements, the policy framework built should also consider the impact on business choices, value chains and the willingness of small and medium enterprises to decarbonise their energy consumption and invest in circularity.

1. Facilitate sustainable growth of bioenergy via strong regulatory certainty

The EU needs a sustainable growth of bioenergy in the coming decades to help achieve the energy transition, which in turn means providing a stable legal framework to ensure a sufficient level of trust for businesses and investors.

Consequently, any retroactive measures such as introducing GHG savings criteria would prove heavily counterproductive.

We are now faced with a real opportunity: The current review of the Bioenergy Sustainability Policy can still ensure that biomass is not only sourced and used sustainably, but that a willing and capable bioenergy sector can successfully operationalise the resulting requirements.

Clear and workable definitions, a risk-based approach, adequate time and the right level of regulatory certainty would enable Europe to run its best race to a more sustainable future with our feet fully untied.

Read the article on Euractiv.

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Sustainable Bioenergy: a reliable, secure, and affordable source of energy to decarbonize the EU’s economy

Yuliia Shumeiko — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 13:17:00 +0000

The recent energy price crisis once again put in the spotlight the issue of the EU’s dependency on the import of natural gas. In 2019, the EU’s energy import dependency rate was 62% (up from 56% in 2000). In this regard, gas import dependency reached a record high of 89.5 % in 2019, with Russia providing 42% of imported gas. Such extreme exposure magnifies not only the market risk of price volatility from global markets which we are currently experiencing, but also vulnerability to geopolitical risks related to the reliability and potential weaponization of this supply dependency by third countries. This situation will be only worsened by the construction of mammoth gas infrastructure projects, like Nord Stream 2, which was questioned by the European Commission and consistently opposed by the European Parliament.

The high share of gas in the power mix of the EU has transmitted the extreme price increase in this commodity (a 400% increase since April 2021) to the wholesale electricity price (a 200% annualized increase). According to recent analysis of S&P Global the cause of this problem is not temporary, it is structural, and there are no solutions that would solve the supply – demand gap anytime soon. ACER similarly predicts that the extremely high prices of energy will persist for the coming winter season.

This situation poses a number of challenges. The most obvious one is the rising energy bills for EU citizens, which will increase rates of energy poverty. This creates a risk that widespread resentment and feelings of injustice could easily be translated into political turmoil and backlash against ambitious climate policies as it happened in Bulgaria in 2013 or France in 2018. The indirect problem of an energy prices hike is exacerbated by inflation which may further endanger the economic situation for many people. If during the coming heating season, gas is not available on the market, there could be dire consequences for millions of people in the EU dependent on gas heating.

The solution is to break the vicious cycle of dependency on natural gas which can be achieved by incentivising a faster transition towards an energy mix based entirely on a diverse range of locally produced renewable energy technologies. In this regard, bioenergy can provide a stable and clean baseload to balance the intermittency of other renewables like wind and solar PV. Bioenergy is a ready and affordable solution to decarbonise the heating consumption in the residential and industrial sectors. Prices of pellets in the EU, are on average 40% cheaper than gas, and 4 times lower than the latest electricity prices. Crucially, bioenergy is the only energy source covered by sustainability criteria by law, which maximizes its positive impacts on nature and mitigation of climate change.

Household energy prices evolution JAN 2019-OCT 2021

Source: Bioenergy Europe data *

The price of sustainable biomass has remained stable during turbulent covid slowdown and economic recovery periods. The overwhelming majority (over 95%) of sustainable biomass used in the EU is locally sourced, which not only reduces energy dependence, but also contributes to the EU economy while reducing GHG emissions and contributing to the development of local economies. Data prove, that biomass is to the large extent shielded from the global commodities price fluctuations.

To effectively deliver all these benefits, the transition towards a renewable energy mix requires a stable regulatory framework. Unfortunately, this has been markedly absent with regards to the bioenergy sector. The considerable delays in the publication of the operational guidelines on sustainability of forest biomass and delegated acts on voluntary certification schemes by the European Commission have made it impossible for Member States to smoothly transpose the Renewable Energy Directive. Finally, the new proposal presented in the REDIII shows a far-fetched revision of the sustainability criteria which does not respect the market realities and the administrative capacity of Member States to transpose new rules. This is revision is premature and will be harmful for a sector that crucially contributes to decarbonize the EU’s economy, foster energy independence, and decrease the energy poverty.

Bioenergy Europe calls for:

- Avoiding the “lock-in” effect of Fossil fuels including natural gas in the EU energy mix, prioritizing the use of local energy sources to decrease the import dependency
- Regulatory stability for bioenergy sector, whose contribution is crucial for the cost competitive decarbonisation of the EU economy
- Faster increase of biomethane injection, which today represents a negligible volume compared with the consumption of natural gas in the EU
- Redirection of investments from gas infrastructure into cleaner sources of energy such as sustainable bioenergy
- More cautious and pragmatic approach to the electrification of the economy, recognizing the impact of potential price hikes in electricity, as well as the persistently high carbon intensity of power generation and the increasing issues with grid stability
- The development of measures supporting vulnerable customers during energy transition period

*Note: for the period JAN 2021 – OCT 2021, data on pellet bulk and pellet bag consumption and price were available for Austria, Czechia, Germany, Spain, France, Latvia and Slovakia. The weighted average presented in the graph is calculated based on data from these countries

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Fit for 55? Europe needs science – and practice-based Sustainability Criteria

Yuliia Shumeiko — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 12:05:00 +0000

If the EU really wants to deliver on its Green Deal ambitions for climate and biodiversity, the new sustainability criteria in the Fit for 55 package need to be science- and practice-based, enabling a complementary and not competing range of renewables, including bioenergy.

The European Commission has promised a “shift from strategy to delivery” in 2021, including for the Green Deal ambition of a climate-neutral Europe by 2050.

In this vein, we have the upcoming Fit for 55 Package intended to help deliver on Europe’s strengthened commitment to reducing emissions by at least 55% by 2030. Wide-ranging in scope, it encompasses renewables, energy efficiency first, energy performance of buildings, land use, energy taxation, effort sharing and emissions trading.

A climate-neutral Europe means a decarbonised energy system. Evolving towards such a system is also central to both the EU’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and its long-term prosperity.

More sustainably sourced renewable energy is going to be essential to this evolution in helping fight not only climate change but also biodiversity loss. It’s for this reason that the EU’s 2030 Biodiversity Strategy prioritises solutions such as ocean energy, offshore wind, solar farms, and sustainable bioenergy.

We have a pathway to climate neutrality

Recent years have seen a wide range of models mapping pathways to zero emissions, with the most credible agreeing on the need to increase bioenergy output in helping to achieve this goal:

- European Commission – Models for achieving EU 2030 and 2050 emissions targets in the 2030 Climate Target Plan Impact Assessment show the need for more bioenergy, as well as projecting its use to increase by 2030 and double by 2050.
- European International Energy Agency (IEA) – its Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector report published last month identifies modern bioenergy as remaining a key resource globally in 2050, particularly in enabling integration of more variable renewables together with its use in industrial processes and district heating. Importantly, the IEA scenario includes sustainably sourced bioenergy that remains well below sustainable potentials, thus “avoiding the risk of negative impacts on biodiversity, fresh water systems, and food prices and availability”.

Complementary not competing renewables

We now find ourselves at a pivotal moment: Imminent policy decisions can create the right environment for investments to flow into the complementary mix of technologies. Europe needs to deliver on its zero emissions ambition.

In 2020, energy generation was responsible for 45% of the EU’s GHG emissions in 2018 according to the European Environment Agency. This represents a considerable carbon footprint, despite renewables having proved resilient to the COVID crisis and the drive towards investments in clean energy generation due to high CO₂ prices.

Clearly, if we’re going to successfully decarbonise our energy system, we need a wide range of available renewable energy sources working in tandem. We need them to be complementary and not in competition.

Science- and practice-based sustainability criteria

At this pivotal moment, policy coherence and certainty are essential in maintaining and raising investor confidence. Without this, progress towards a climate-neutral Europe will certainly be slowed down, or even potentially reversed.

The EU can seize the current opportunity and avoid such risks by ensuring the design of the new sustainability criteria is consistently science- and practice-based. Such an approach includes taking into consideration the following five actions:

1) Maintain the Risk-Based Approach (RBA) as the core principle of biomass sustainability. As recognised by the OECD, RBA produces mutually beneficial outcomes. On the one side, Market Operators can rely on a more efficient and effective regulatory framework that can reduce cost-compliance for businesses; on the other side, RBA also ensures a minimisation risk on environmental impact. Therefore, any evolution of the current sustainability must stay aligned with this methodology.

2) Recognise that retroactive application of existing GHG emissions requirements is not simply dependent on cosmetic changes to sourcing policy. Instead, this could compromise business decisions taken under the current legal framework.

3) View sustainability as a multifaceted concept that encompasses not only environmental considerations but also equally relevant socio-economic factors. Notably, the bioenergy sector in Europe employs more people than other renewables combined, particularly in rural areas. In parallel, it contributes with € 57.7 billion to Europe’s economy (2018) across a diverse value chain from forest management to cutting edge manufacturing.

4) Consider cost-compliance for small operators. Excessive red tape risks forcing significant numbers of small operators to switch back to fossil fuels, with negative implications for jobs and growth in rural areas. This trend is already observable in a number of Member States where operators face an unstable regulatory framework for bioenergy projects, and therefore revert to fossil fuels solutions.

5) Work on evidence-based sustainability governance for the bioeconomy. Restricting sustainable bioenergy to source specific feedstock or capping its growth will yield no environmental benefit, on the contrary, it will certainly harm its supply chain and its resilience.