Biofuels, the new sustainability certification system

The Official Journal of 26 August 2024 published the new inter-ministerial decree (Mase and Masaf) on the national certification system for the sustainability of biofuels .

The measure updates the 2019 decree by extending its scope of application , previously referring only to biofuels and bioliquids.

Tool to promote energy transition

The decree represents an indispensable tool for accessing the measures for the development of biogas and biomethane production provided for by recent government measures and is added to the new regulatory framework aimed at promoting the agroecological transition as provided for by EU directives.

Provisions for biofuels

For biofuels in particular, the following are established:

• the operating methods of the national biofuel sustainability certification system and the procedures for joining it;
• the procedures for verifying obligations relating to social and environmental information;
• the provisions that economic operators and suppliers must comply with for the use of the mass balance system;
• the methods for obtaining the low risk certification of indirect change of land use.

"The issuing of the decree allows - declared Piero Gattoni, president of the Cib Italian Biogas Consortium - the sector to have a clearer picture of the path that agricultural companies will have to take to produce biogas and biomethane and to be able to access the related support mechanisms provided by the Government".

The decree, in addition to updating the rules for certifying the sustainability of biomethane according to the indications of Legislative Decree 199/2021, introduces for the first time the path that existing plants that produce electricity from biogas must also follow. (Source: https://informatorezootecnico.edagricole.it/ )