Carbon and sustainability consultation for 2010/11

RFA formal written consultation on our 'RED-ready' C&S Technical Guidance for RTFO Year 3 (15 April 2010-14 April 2011)*

The Renewable Fuels Agency aims to help the UK industry to best prepare for the EU's Renewable Energy Directive by adapting the RTFO Carbon & Sustainability reporting system to be as consistent as possible with the European Commission C&S requirements from the start of the third year of the RTFO in April 2010. This is intended to enable a period of reporting against indicative 'RED-ready' criteria before the introduction of mandatory C&S requirements when the UK Government implements the RED.

Following our stakeholder workshop on 6 October 2009 in London (presentations here), we ran an informal consultation on our proposed 'RED-ready' C&S guidelines to be implemented from April 2010. We have now considered the feedback and input received during this period and have prepared a revised Technical Guidance for RTFO Year 3 (from 15 Apr 2010). We are now running a 4-week written formal consultation on the revised C&S Technical Guidance (from 2-28 Feb 2010).

Under our proposals, biodiversity criteria would be dealt with through the current RTFO Meta-Standard system, with a new option added to report independently verified compliance with the RED biodiversity criteria.  Protection of high carbon land would be monitored through modifications to the previous land use reporting category. Compliance with the protection of carbon stocks and biodiversity criteria can also be demonstrated through compliance with the Meta-Standard.  

Lifecycle carbon savings are now calculated using the RED carbon methodology (resulting in changed default emissions  from those under the RTFO Year 2 methodology). The carbon defaults will be feedstock level defaults - thereby losing the detail provided by having country level defaults. Note this is a change from our informal consultation where we proposed retaining the country level defaults: this change follows legal advice.  

Questions remain to be clarified by the European Commission through a communication expected in the spring and the ongoing comitology process, such as what the definitions for biofuels from wastes and residues will be under the RED. However, we feel it is important to consult now in order that the revised guidelines are ready for the start of the next obligation year in April 2010.

The revised Technical Guidance can be downloaded below: a summary of the key changes is included at the start of each chapter in Part One. One new feature is an Excel spreadsheet which replaces the fuel chain data tables in Part 2 of the Technical Guidance. Part 2 is now a short guidance to calculating carbon intensity for biofuels, which should be used in conjunction with the spreadsheet and Carbon Calculator.  A revised Carbon Calculator will be released in time for the new obligation period (April 2010).  A list of consultation questions can be found here.

We invite our stakeholders for feedback on the proposals to c-and-s@rfa.gsi.gov.uk  before midnight on 28 February 2010 .

*The guidance may be superseded part way through the obligation year if the RED is implemented during the period.

Documents

Consultation questions

Technical Guidance Part One

Technical Guidance Part Two: Carbon Reporting – Default Values and Fuel Chains

Excel spreadsheet RFA C and S TG draft for consultation - Detailed Carbon Intensity Data 2010-11

Excel spreadsheet RFA C and S TG draft for consultation- Carbon Intensity Templates 2010-11 

RFA benchmarks of sustainability assurance schemes against the RTFO

RFA benchmarks of sustainability assurance schemes against the RED

RFA recommendations to sustainability schemes to improve compliance with the RED

Presentations  

Launch of C&S consultation for 2010/11 - Gemma Reece
Launch of C&S consultation for 2010/11 - Phil Watson
RFA Stakeholder Workshop, 4 February 2010: Gemma Reece and Phil Watson introduced the formal consultation on the RFA’s proposed carbon and sustainability guidelines for 2010/11.

Last Modified: 24 Feb 2010