Addressing the Untapped Synergy Potential of Unharmonised Legislation in Biogas

(Accel AgroBiogas) At the end of January, partners and associated partners within Accel AgroBiogas gathered for an online policy workshop to discuss current policy barriers – and emerging policy opportunities – for integrating sequential crops, crop residues, and ley grass into sustainable biogas production. The workshop brought together expertise from across the value chain, with a particular focus on developments and opportunities at both EU and national levels. Key themes included the ongoing revision of the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) as well as the recently updated EU Bioeconomy Strategy, to which the project contributed last year.

Among the concrete issues discussed were carbon accounting and verification, as well as the lack of standardized methods for carbon accounting in EU legislation. Under the current regulatory framework, it is very difficult to verify improvements in soil carbon content. Even though improved cultivation practices such as sequential crops and ley cultivation on arable land can clearly increase soil carbon levels, it is practically impossible to meet the documentation requirements based on field measurements under current legislation. Field measurements are often difficult, costly, or practically impossible to carry out, and research also shows that some effects of cultivation practices on soil properties only become measurable after generations of farming.

This creates a discrepancy between the climate benefits of crop-based biogas substrates in practice and what can actually be certified under current legislation.

According to the project’s assessment, modelling rather than field measurements is the way forward to provide reliable indications of improvements or reductions in soil carbon levels resulting from different cultivation practices and biomass removal. Legislation therefore needs to better reflect this reality by allowing the use of modelling as a basis for documentation.

Why is this important?

When biogas producers in practice cannot account for the climate benefits of carbon sequestration from ley and sequential crops, market distortions arise. In the current system, crop-based substrates used in biogas production are assigned low climate benefits, making the biogas less attractive to users. Existing certification systems favor manure, which has led to increasing volumes of manure being used and contracted for biogas production. This is positive, but if we want to see similar development for sustainably produced crop-based biogas, it must become easier to document and report the positive climate effects of carbon sequestration as well as reduced nitrous oxide emissions. Today, the market imbalance discourages farmers from supplying substrates with high potential, such as grass, despite their agronomic and climate benefits.

Upcoming position paper on the lack of coordination between energy and agricultural legislation

A recurring topic throughout discussions on all the policy areas mentioned above was the lack of coordination and harmonization between energy legislation and agricultural legislation – a problem that exists both at EU level and at national level. In addition, unclear, ambiguous, or sometimes contradictory wording in EU legislation leads to very different implementation of the rules across countries.

The Accel AgroBiogas partnership therefore hopes to contribute to raising this issue on the European biogas agenda during the coming year, at a time when European energy legislation is under revision. Several European stakeholders have already signaled their support for this initiative.

“In the coming spring, the project partnership will begin developing a position paper addressing the lack of coordination we see between energy and agricultural legislation, particularly from a Nordic perspective. With this document, we want to highlight the untapped potential of stronger harmonization,” says Kasper Hamle, EU Advisor at Central Denmark EU Office.

He explains that the document will be developed by the partnership in collaboration with, among others, Biogas Denmark and the European Biogas Association.

If you and your organisation are interested in collaborating with the Accel AgroBiogas partnership on the policy paper or any of the above-mentioned policy topics, you are welcome to reach out to Kasper Hamle at KH@centraldenmark.eu. READ MORE