In the run-up to the 22nd International Conference on Renewable Mobility, Marlene Mortler, Chair of the GermanBioenergy Association (BBE), presented the current challenges and concerns facing the biofuels industry in the upcoming legislative period. “A completely new approach to biofuels policy is essential. We must at last receivereliable support from the world of politics again, instead of politicians simply watching from the sidelines,procrastinating, and hesitating. For over two years, the industry has been confronted with fraudulent biodiesel imports from China and has also been forced to cope with the consequences of significant shortcomings on thepart of the German Ministry for the Environment and the Federal Environment Agency in monitoring the eligibility of greenhouse gas quota credits for climate change mitigation projects in China. National implementation of the EU Renewable Energy Directive is supposed to be completed by May; if that deadline is tobe met, submission of the relevant regulatory proposals is long overdue. In this context, there are also groundsfor concern about the lack of ambition displayed by what remains of the coalition currently still in office, which lacks a reliable overall strategy for renewable alternative fuels and drives in the transport sector. For years, implementation of urgently needed transport-sector defossilisation has been very slow due to procrastination and an inability to take action at the national and EU level. Examples include the unambitious targets for renewable fuels, delays in adopting legislative provisions, the European Commission’s botched launch of the Union database, which currently affects the entire supply chain, or negotiations at EU level on the Energy Taxation Directive, which have been dragging on for years”, as Mortler commented in her opening statement.

Mortler levelled harsh criticism at the current German government for being slow to combat the underlying causesof fraudulent imports of purportedly advanced biodiesel from China that were discovered over two years ago.She urged the federal government to take effective action; as she explained, “The German biofuels industry is under unprecedented pressure due to the drastic collapse of greenhouse gas quota prices, which is also affecting prices for domestic sustainable biofuels. Rather than simply standing and watching our country’sbiofuel producers face economic ruin while climate change mitigation in the transport sector grinds to a halt, theGerman government must take the bull by the horns and introduce an official approval procedure for advancedbiofuels as promptly as possible. Misgivings have instead brought the industry to a virtual standstill, creating the impression that the government is quite willing to accept the damage done to the sector.” Mortler criticisedrecent measures adopted by the German government that only address the symptoms rather than the causes,such as the amendments to the 38th Ordinance on the Implementation of the Federal Immission Control Act (BImSchV) concerning suspension of scope to transfer greenhouse gas reduction quotas to 2025 and 2026.

Mortler also criticised the excessively tardy and over-hesitant response from the government and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) to the fraud cases that have come to light involving alleged reductions in greenhousegas emissions during oil production (Upstream Emission Reductions – UER) that have been offset against theGerman greenhouse gas reduction quota: “The questionable UER projects have still not been reviewed and full details of the fraud cases have not been identified, let alone compensated for by the Chinese fake projects thatdemonstrably did not attain the claimed climate change mitigation. Environment Minister Steffi Lemke’s argumentthat consumers have not suffered any damage as the fraudulent climate projects were cheaper than non-counterfeit compliance options such as sustainable biofuels or e-mobility is a slap in the face for the climatechange mitigation industry and testifies to a crude understanding of the law and of her office. Minister Lemke and UBA President Messner must address the issue of their personal responsibility in this multibillion-Euro environmental scandal.”