Accelerating Europe’s Climate and Industrial Transition with European Sustainable Biomethane

We, the undersigned industry associations – representing industrial off-takers, energy efficiency solution providers, farmers, producers – affirm our commitment to promote the EU’s reindustrialisation, energy security, and advancing its transition to climate neutrality. We view biomethane as key building block to addressing these objectives and call for promoting its scale-up, including in energy-intensive and hard-to-abate sectors and to contribute to an overall fast and resilient transition.

High-energy and feedstock costs and regulatory burdens, particularly rising carbon costs, are diminishing the competitiveness of EU industry. They also undercut its capacity to invest in the transition to climate neutrality.

Biomethane stands out as a domestic, cost-effective, scalable, and immediately deployable solution for industrial solutions enabling industry transition towards climate neutrality. While electrification and hydrogen can contribute in several applications, a number of key sectors such as chemicals, metals, pulp and paper, maritime and fertilisers are expected to remain partly dependent on gaseous molecules as both energy carriers and feedstocks, making sustainable biomethane one of the essential pillars of Europe’s industrial and circular transition. Although the enabling framework is gradually taking shape, persistent gaps and implementation delays continue to limit the pace and scale of market deployment.

Against that background, sustainable domestic biomethane is proven and scalable. Being produced in Europe, its transport infrastructure connects all corners of the EU and neighbouring third-countries vitally supporting energy independence and safety of supply. Biomethane already offers a cost-effective gaseous solution for hard to abate sectors both as an energy vector and in feedstock applications. In addition, it can play a strong role in decarbonising and balancing EU’s increasingly integrated energy systems, in combination with sector coupling solutions like cogeneration or district heating and complementing electrification of heat and transport. Biomethane co-products — namely digestate and biogenic CO₂ — also deliver valuable, circular solutions for both the agricultural and industrial sectors.

Reflecting on its significant potential, our industries stand ready to invest in the biomethane value chain. To develop a home-grown, reliable, and renewable energy source and a strong pilar for Europe ‘energy sovereignty. At present, however, the pace and scale of its deployment remain constrained by gaps in the enabling framework that hamper this nascent market.

To address these gaps, we call for:

• Recognition of biomethane potential and removal of barriers to scaling
  • Recognise biomethane’s contribution to the EU’s energy and climate targets, including delivery of the 35 bcm of biomethane production target for 2030 under REPowerEU, and ensure its role is fully reflected in the EU’s emerging regulatory frameworks, including initiatives such as the Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act.
  • Recognise the circular value as well as the social and local benefits of biomethane production.
  • Remove administrative burdens and barriers to biomethane certification and trading across EU borders and with third countries.
    • Enable the recognition of biomethane guarantees of origin in corporate and product carbon foot printing. End-consumers need to be able to see the benefit of industrial up take of bio energy and feedstock.
    • Aligning with the European Commission simplification agenda, cut disproportionate administrative burdens for EU-wide biomethane production, certification and reporting requirements.
  • Remove administrative and market barriers to corporate Biomethane Purchasing Agreements.
  • Fully promote biomethane at a similar level as other vectors for reaching climate neutrality, such as green electricity and green hydrogen.
• Support for economies of scale
  • Create incentives for low-carbon and/or circular products produced with/ from biomethane.
  • Funding support at EU level should help drive the technology to scale and close the cost gap to fossil gas. Drawing on experiences with the EU Hydrogen Bank, we call for the establishment of a Biomethane Bank support scheme, ensuring long-term Biomethane Purchasing Agreements (BPAs), and strengthen connections between producers and industrial off-takers.
  • Support ought to prioritise off-take in energy-intensive and hard-to-abate sectors.
• Harmonisation of support schemes
  • Access to national funding can be burdensome, while administrative barriers deter the participation of SMEs. We call for harmonisation of national funding schemes to the degree possible, including through designated auctions-as-a-service at EU level.
• Promotion of infrastructure access
  • Integrated grid planning, including through a bottom-up mapping of supply and demand, should facilitate (local, regional, national and cross-border) infrastructure planning and increase societal resilience at all levels.
  • Fast-track permitting for connecting producers (and consumers) of renewable and low-carbon molecules to the gas grid, including through establishing ‘acceleration areas’ and ‘one-stop-shops’.

Unlocking sustainable biomethane at scale is a shared responsibility and a shared opportunity. With the right framework in place, biomethane as a domestic source can deliver emissions reductions today, strengthen Europe’s energy resilience and safety of its supply, support rural development, and enable the transition to carbon neutrality of Europe’s businesses and citizens.

We stand ready to work with European and national policymakers, regulators and stakeholders to turn this potential into reality.

Signed by:

European Biogas Association

European Chemical Industry Council

European Association of Sugar Manufacturers and Primary Food Processors

Confederation of European Paper Industries

European Association for the Promotion of Cogeneration

Fertilizers Europe

Glass for Europe

SEA-LNG