Study of potential feedstocks for Annex IX of the Renewable Energy Directive

The EU’s Renewable Energy Directive provides additional incentives to promote the production of biofuels from certain specified feedstocks, with these biofuels identified as ‘advanced’. These feedstocks are listed in Annex IX of the Directive. New feedstocks may be added to Annex IX by the European Commission, based on assessment against a number of criteria (Article 28(6) of EU RED II) and with consideration of the associated risk of fraud. This project, which Cerulogy worked on in a consortium with E4tech, Navigant, the ICCT, Wageningen University and SCS, shortlisted 30 feedstocks from approximately 130 candidates and evaluated them against the Article 28(6) criteria and a set of fraud risk indicators. The evaluation resulted in seven feedstock categories being marked as of no “particular concern” regarding Art 28(6) criteria, while ten categories raised “significant concerns” in one or more criteria. The rest of the shortlist was marked as having “some concerns”, where the overall level of risk might be considered acceptable or where a risk would only materialize in certain conditions. The Consortium proposed several recommendations as to how to mitigate fraud risks. Note that the Cerulogy design team was not involved in the placement of the logos on the report cover!