Roadmap for the new Renewable Energy Directive and bioenergy sustainability policy beyond 2020
The European Commission published a roadmap in late October ahead of next year’s proposals to reform EU legislation on renewable energy and biomass sustainability criteria.
The recently published Roadmap introduces the Commission’s main considerations on how to reform the current Renewable Energy Directive to go beyond the EU’s 2020 renewable energy commitments, adapting the directive to fulfil the 2030 commitments. Different policy scenarios are considered in the roadmap and lessons are drawn from previous evaluations of the current Renewable Energy Directive (see REFIT, COM (2013) 685).
The Roadmap also sets as priority the revision biomass sustainability criteria, with the aim to set harmonised and comprehensive EU criteria for all biomass uses in the energy sector, including electricity, heating & cooling and transport. Beyond 2020 existing criteria will be “streamlined/extended/reinforced”, while it will also cover “biogas in heat and power”.
An online public consultation will open in late November on the new renewable energy package and relevant stakeholders will be invited by the European Commission to share their views in a series of workshops and events in the coming year. A series of legislative proposals are being prepared, including the 2 topics of this roadmap, which will be presented by the European Commission as the Renewable Energy Package in autumn 2016.
