Brussels, 26th of October, 2023. The Biomethane Industrial Partnership publishes today its first reports “A vision on how to accelerate biomethane project development” and “Accelerating permitting procedures for biomethane”. These reports were prepared by Task Force 2 and delve into the critical factors that can speed up biomethane projects and investments within Europe.
The Biomethane Industrial Partnership presents today its first reports during a dedicated launch event, as part of the first edition of the European Biomethane Week “Countdown to 2030: from targets to action!”.
The two reports stem from the work of Task Force 2, co-chaired by the European Commission, DG GROW, and which started its work in December 2022 with an aim to identify and scale up best practices, initiate creative solutions and overcome barriers to speed up investments in new biomethane plants across the EU. The starting point in the report on ‘A vision on how to accelerate biomethane project development’ is that project developers and investors will only be able to decide on investments in new production capacities if they perceive a positive business case. The report underlines that investors need not only long-term clarity on the role for biomethane in a national energy mix and at European level, but also effective incentives, from supply-side support schemes like production subsidies in emerging markets, to demand-side incentives like greenhouse gas intensity targets in markets reaching a certain maturity. Second, a positive business case will rely on potential access to a broad market of end-users, and third, on the possibility to easily trade biomethane across the EU, to allow sourcing cost-effective biomethane production and serving markets with a high demand for biomethane across the EU. The report on ‘Accelerating permitting procedures for biomethane’ complements this perspective by presenting good practices and an ideal procedure for effective and accelerated permitting for new biomethane projects.
Today’s publications mark an initial step towards fostering a dialogue with all relevant stakeholders in Europe on the most effective actions to speed up biomethane projects and investments, which is a condition for achieving the European target to produce 35 bcm of sustainable biomethane by 2030.
