“We will promote the inclusion of B10 provisions in national legislation in application of the revised Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) including appropriate measures to effectively bring B10 to the pumps across EU Member States. ”
2023 has been yet another very intense year for our industry. Our collective efforts led to the adoption of improved key pieces of legislation, such as the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII) and the FuelEU Maritime Regulation, which constitute a solid regulatory framework for the promotion of waste-based and advanced biodiesel in the 2025-2030 period. The job is far from being done though.
We must ensure the right REDIII transposition with a fair promotion of waste-based and advanced biodiesel at national level. We will promote the inclusion of B10 provisions in national legislation in application of the revised Fuel Quality Directive (FQD) including appropriate measures to effectively bring B10 to the pumps across EU Member States. The REDIII transposition will mostly coincide in time with the transposition of the revision of Annex IX that will bring much needed eligible new feedstocks. We will work to secure the role of biodiesel feedstocks coupled with an ambitious increase of the Part B limitation, and we will advocate for a workable approach to the conditionality on cover crops. We will be visiting national capitals hand in hand with our members to achieve these objectives building on our successful REDII transposition campaign.
Our industry also has to get ready to supply increasing volumes of waste-based and advanced biodiesel to the maritime sector towards 2025 and beyond to meet the FuelEU Regulation ambitious GHG reduction targets. We must strike a balance between the specific needs of the maritime industry and our industry’s own needs. We have recently created a Maritime Taskforce within EWABA that is putting our collective knowledge together to tackle these challenges.
This year has also witnessed particularly dire market conditions amid concerning trade flows from third countries. It is a paradox that the European industry has been working to set up a solid system of regulatory promotion to the bene[1]fit of non-EU producers. We are also collectively working to stop these trade flows by supporting pan-industry trade defense actions and acting on our clear commitment to increasing traceability and transparency and improve certification practices. We are supporting the improvement and implementation of the Union Database for Biofuels (UDB) beyond the 1 January 2024 deadline for onboarding economic operators and advocating for a speedy transition towards the registration of transactions. This is being done upon the work of our ongoing 20-member UDB pilot. In addition we are working on the further improvement of standards for voluntary schemes.
We look at 2024 with hope as a new European Parliament and a new College of Commissioners at the European Commission will take over for a 5-year term. We will be promoting the role of waste-based and advanced biodiesel with a clear aim to improve the regulatory framework with an eye on the role of renewable fuels post-2035 and the revisions of REDIII, ReFuelEU Aviation and FuelEU Maritime due in 2027. I am proud of our continuous work at EWABA and feel that our regulatory achievements coupled with our members’ consistently positive feedback and the outstanding 12 new members that joined us in 2023 prove that we keep rowing in the right direction. Thank you for your support in this journey!
Angel Alvarez Alberdi
Secretary General
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