CEN to issue draft green standards for biomass, 1 December 2010
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Europe's
standardisation body CEN will on Thursday unveil draft sustainability
standards for biomass produced for biofuels and bioliquids. The final
standards will be finalised in early 2012, delegates were told at a
conference in Brussels on Monday. Denmark
is also about to launch its NTA 8080/8081 voluntary sustainability
criteria for biomass and biofuels. CEN's EN 16214 standards are
intended as a reference document for the implementation of EU
sustainability criteria proposed in February. These
criteria
are not binding. This means EU member states will be free to
introduce their own rules. By the end of 2011, the EU executive will
assess whether national sustainability schemes are barriers to trade
and distort markets. EN
16214 could also be the basis for sustainability criteria for biomass
heat and power production, according to Ortwin Costenoble, secretary
of the CEN committee that is developing the standard. Mr Costenoble
added the EU should push for an ISO standard, in part to forestall
World Trade Organisation disputes. The
EU expects a huge growth in the amount of biomass used for heat and
power production to meet the EU's climate and energy goals. This means
EU imports of wood are likely to increase. At the moment, imports
account for less than 5% of biomass used in the EU for electricity,
heating and cooling. The
draft standards to be unveiled this week cover terminology, conformity
assessment including chain of custody and mass balance, and
biodiversity and environmental aspects. Next May, CEN will issue a
further draft standard on methods for calculating greenhouse gas
emissions using life cycle analysis. Yves
Ryckmans of power sector association Eurelectric said his members were
ready to build large biomass-fuelled power plants but needed binding
criteria to justify the investment risks. The association will publish
the power sector's own sustainability criteria and verification scheme
in a few months' time. The
pulp and paper sector and the wood products sector are worried about competition
for their raw materials from the energy sector. Subsidies given
for bioenergy mean that energy firms can afford to pay more for wood,
said Filip De Jaeger, secretary general of timber industry association
CEI-bois. Follow
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EEA
warning over Europe's resource efficiency
Europe's
continuing depletion of natural resources and ecosystem services will
undermine its economy if left unchecked, the European Environment
Agency (EEA) said on Tuesday as it released it latest assessment of
Europe's environment. The
assessment, published
every five years, covers all EU and EFTA
countries plus Turkey and the Balkan states. It shows Europe is
consuming more resources than it has. In the EU-12, resource use
increased by 34% between 2000 and 2007. But there has been an
encouraging partial decoupling of resource use and economic output. Speaking
at the launch of the report, EEA director Jacqueline McGlade said that
global pressures on resources, along with newer demands such as the
need for biomass to replace fossil fuels required a new approach in
the EU. Also
speaking at the launch, environment commissioner Janez Potocnik warned
that by 2050 the cost of biodiversity loss in Europe could be 6% of
GDP per year. The European Commission is expected to issue a report on
the EU's resource
use strategy by the end of the year, followed by a resource
efficiency roadmap in 2011. Dr
McGlade said resource use should be taken into account in the
forthcoming revision of the common
agricultural policy (CAP). This would help identify where the most
productive farming land is and enable set-aside of non-productive land
for biodiversity protection. Europe's
waste management has shifted steadily from landfill to recycling and
prevention, the assessment shows. But half of the three billion tonnes
of total waste generated in the EU-27 in 2006 was still landfilled. In
2008, Bulgaria landfilled the highest percentage of its waste.
Switzerland had the lowest percentage. In
2007, Ireland used by far the most resources per inhabitant, while
Malta and the Netherlands used the least. On average, 16 tonnes of
materials are used annually per person in the EU, of which six tonnes
become waste. But of that amount, only 8% of waste is generated by
households. Most is from construction and mining. The
EEA assessment also notes that water and air pollution in Europe have
declined, with levels of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides both
declining. But exposure to particulate matter and ozone are still
major human health concerns. There
is some progress regarding biodiversity. Europe has now expanded its
Natura 2000 network of protected areas to cover some 18% of EU land.
The quality of freshwaters has generally improved and a reduction of
air and water emissions has reduced pressure on species and habitats.
But the EU will miss its 2010 biodiversity target. Follow
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Re: CEN to issue draft green standards for biomass, 1 December 2010