ERGaR welcomes Gas Networks Ireland as a Member!

Brussels, September 2023 – Gas Networks Ireland admitted as a Member of ERGaR

ERGaR is happy to welcome Gas Networks Ireland as a Member to the organisation:

Gas Networks Ireland operates and maintains Ireland’s €2.7bn, 14,664km national gas network, which is considered one of the safest and most modern renewables-ready gas networks in the world.

Over 720,000 Irish homes and businesses are connected to the gas network which supplies more than 30% of Ireland’s total energy, including 40% of all heating and almost 50% of the country’s electricity generation.

By working to replace natural gas with renewable gases, and complementing intermittent renewable electricity, Gas Networks Ireland is supporting Ireland’s journey to a cleaner energy future.

For more information, please visit their website.

ERGaR welcomes CF Partners as new Associated Member!

Brussels, September 2023 – CF Partners admitted as new Associated Member of ERGaR

ERGaR is happy to welcome CF Partners as a new Associated Member to the organisation:

CF Partners are a leading provider of energy and environmental solutions, specialised in working with large and complex consumers. They partner with their clients to enable the transition to a low-carbon future, by providing an integrated toolkit of technology-enabled solutions combined with best-in-class advisory and support. Their long-standing experience enables them to guide businesses through this transition in a way that makes sense for the business – tailoring to budget, constraints, and climate goals. CF Partners understand the need for systemic change and continual improvement whilst providing both environmental and transitional products that enable businesses to thrive today and adapt for tomorrow.

For more information, please visit their website.

ERGaR welcomes Proman AG as new Associated Member!

Brussels, July 2023 – Proman AG admitted as new Associated Member to ERGaR

ERGaR is happy to welcome Proman AG as a new Associated Member to the organisation.

“Product traceability and governance play an important role in the clean energy transition, and therefore we are delighted to join ERGaR and its members in achieving the same for the cross-border trade of renewable gases in Europe. This partnership complements not only our low-carbon and renewable methanol and ammonia production ambitions worldwide, but as well our investments made into digital verification platforms”, says Tim Cornelius, Proman’s Managing Director of Corporate Development.

Proman is an integrated energy company and the world’s second largest methanol producer.  

Headquartered in Switzerland, with offices across Europe, production assets in the United States, Trinidad and Oman, and ongoing expansion into Mexico, Canada and the UAE, Proman is a global leader in methanol, fertilizer and other products such as melamine. Proman has extensive experience in project management, petrochemical plant construction and operations, marketing and logistics, and shipping.   Proman is committed to developing lower-carbon and green methanol and ammonia as cleaner alternatives to conventional fossil fuels, offering a pathway to drastically cutting emissions in a range of sectors including transport and heavy industry.

For more information, please visit their website.

ERGaR to Participate at Biogas PowerON

Brussels, July 2023. ERGaR is Set to Present at Upcoming 5th European Conference Biogas PowerON.

On 27-28 September, the next edition of the European Conference Biogas PowerON will take place in Hamburg, Germany. Here, ERGaR Secretary General, Tim Hamers, will give a presentation on the renewable gas certificates for biomethane. 

Topics to be covered include: overview of European and national policies and regulations, the future of biogas industry from the perspective of a producer, cost competitiveness of biomethane, sustainability and green origin of biomethane, building a successful biogas system in Europe, role of gas infrastructure in decarbonising European energy sector, and many more.

More information here. 

ERGaR welcomes ENGIE as new Associated Member!

Brussels, June 2023 – ENGIE Global Energy Management admitted as new Associated Member to ERGaR

ERGaR is happy to welcome ENGIE Global Energy Management as a new Associated Member to the organisation.

As a green and global midstreamer, ENGIE Global Energy Management & Sales sources biomethane on a long-term basis from hundreds of producers to help their clients in their decarbonization journey.

ENGIE’s experience in short and long-term renewable corporate PPAs and risk transformation expertise enables them to design with their clients renewable gas agreements like BPAs (for Biomethane Purchase Agreements). Producers can secure their production of their assets through a BPA, while consumers benefit from tailor-made contracts, choosing their mixes, maturity, while even being able to trace and certify their sourcing through guarantees of origin and/or proofs of sustainability.

For more information, please visit their website.

Tim Hamers Begins as New ERGaR Secretary General

Brussels, May 2023. Tim Hamers Begins as New ERGaR Secretary General

We are happy to welcome Tim Hamers as our new Secretary General.

Tim has been active in Brussels for over 10 years. This mainly includes roles in European and national industry associations in the areas of agricultural machinery, mechanical engineering, and, most recently, the weighing industry.

On his new role, Tim says: “I’m excited to start working for ERGaR during these interesting times for the renewable energy sector. Renewable gas certificates are an essential pillar in increasing the share of renewable energy and I’m glad to be able to contribute to the progress of these certificates within ERGaR.”

We look forward to collaborating and working towards the development of renewable gas certificates in Europe!

ERGaR and Five Other Associations Send Joint Letter to European Commission Regarding Union Database

Brussels, February 2023 – ERGaR and Five Other Associations Send Joint Letter to European Commission Regarding Union Database

Together with the European Biogas Association (EBA), the European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET), Eurogas, ENTSO-G, and Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), a joint letter was sent to DG ENER of the European Commission to raise serious concerns on the operational design and launch planning of the Union Database.

With the goal of tracing gaseous and liquid transport fuels according to the recast Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) and the corresponding Implementation Act for Voluntary Schemes, the co-signatories have voiced their concerns regarding pending separate tradability of certificates from the underlying commodity and system integrity. Further, the lack of information and due notification to market participants would hinder a sufficient preparation regarding the launch of the Union Database.

Recommendations include:

Resume regular focus groups with gas market participants, system operators, voluntary schemes and GO registries on pending operational design issues of the UDB, to ensure and clarify:

  • The interaction between national databases and the UDB
  • Separate trading of commodities and their climate values.
  • The link between national mass balancing and GO schemes and the UDB.
  • The precise obligations of economic operators active in different segments of the gaseous value chain.

Adjust the proposed timeline to set 2023 (at least) as a testing year for all fuels. This timeline should be shared as soon as possible with all stakeholders to ensure adequate preparation and to other policymakers to avoid mismatch within the EU policy framework.

Reassure market participants that the launch of the Union Database will occur only when it has proven fully functional based on the following conditions:

  • The UDB and national databases are interconnected and transfer of information between national databases is effective and reliable in real-time.
  • Tests by market participants and Voluntary Schemes have shown that the UDB actually works in a stable and secure way.
  • Voluntary Schemes have been given appropriate time to train their operators as well as auditors from certification bodies.
  •  A simple, fully tested solution for non-certified and/or off-grid gas suppliers is implemented, and concerned Economic Operators have been trained to interact with the UDB.

Read the full letter here

 

ERGaR Joins Biogas Trade Bodies and Other Companies Call for an Urgent Rethink on GHG Protocol Guidance for Corporate Biomethane Use Reporting

Brussels, February 2023 – ERGaR Joins Biogas Trade Bodies and Other Companies Call for an Urgent Rethink on GHG Protocol Guidance for Corporate Biomethane Use Reporting

Over 50 biogas and biomethane trade associations and companies from around the world have written to the World Resources Institute (WRI), administrator of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (1), calling for a rethink of its position on the use of biomethane certificates for greenhouse gas reporting by corporate gas users.

The GHG Protocol is globally recognised as the leading GHG accounting standard. Until recently, corporates wanting to decarbonise their emissions purchased biomethane certificates and reported this as part of their Scope 1 emissions accounting (2). This led to investment in new biomethane production infrastructure, which the world critically needs to cut methane emissions from organic wastes and generate green gas, biofertilisers and bioCO2, but this will no longer be possible under the proposed new guidance.

In their letter to the WRI, ERGaR joined the World Biogas Association together with national trade bodies from across Europe, North and Latin America, Africa and Oceania, as well as stakeholders including major operators such as TotalEnergies, Nature Energy, Clarke Energy and Engie to express their concern about the impact of the proposed new “Land Sector and Removals Guidance” (3) on the production of biomethane.

In particular, the signatories ask for the removal of Annex B of the guidance and for the reinstatement of the existing guidance allowing companies to purchase biomethane certificates as part of their Scope 1 reporting (4). The new guidance requires physical delivery of biomethane to corporate consumers via dedicated pipelines or road transport, rather than via existing gas grids, which is logistically and commercially unviable, and will lead to increased emissions.

The proposed changes have the potential to immediately halve investment in a renewable technology that could deliver one third of today’s global natural gas consumption, half of the Global Methane Pledge and a 10% reduction in total global greenhouse gas emissions, as well as create millions of green jobs”, explains Charlotte Morton, WBA Chief Executive. “Alongside the many other signatories, we call on the WRI to remove the Annex and work with the sector to develop criteria to ensure that biomethane certificates evidence real decarbonisation.

Read the letter here

(1)    Developed in 2015, The GHG Protocol establishes comprehensive global standardized frameworks to measure and manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from private and public sector operations, value chains and mitigation actions.

(2)    The framework for companies to measure and manage their GHG emissions is established within three ‘scopes’:

  • scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from businesses (e.g. using fossil fuels);
  • scope 2 are from the purchase of energy (e.g. for heating or electricity); and
  • scope 3 are indirect emissions associated with business activities and the supply chain.

(3)    The draft “Land Sector and Removals Guidance” is a supplement to the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, which establishes the methodology for corporations to carry out inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in their operations and report on their use of green alternatives to fossil gas, such as biomethane.

(4)    Under the current guidance, it is specifically stated that a company which purchases biogas or biomethane via a contractual instrument, compliant with the ‘GHG Protocol Scope 2 Quality Criteria’, may report scope 1 emissions for biomethane using the market-based method and using a specific emission factor. As a result, certificates from the AD sector became an attractive means of evidencing GHG reduction across a wide variety of industries, and supported investment of new biomethane production infrastructure, which is critical if the world is to achieve its 2030 climate targets and keep alive the possibility of meeting the 1.5 degree target.

 

  • The signatories
    ABiogás; ACT Commodities Group; Air Liquide; Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA); Arkema; Asociación Española de Biogás (AEBIG); Asociacion Mexicana de Biomasa y Biogas (AMBB); Bioenergy Association New Zealand; Bioenergy Australia; Biogas Danmark; Biogass Norge; Biomasse Suisse; Canadian Biogas Association (CBA); CEDEC Federation of Local Energy Companies; Centrica; Cerame-Unie; Clarke Energy; Clean Energy; CVE Biogaz; Energigas Sverige; Engie; Entsorga; EUROFER; Eurogas; European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET); European Renewables Gas Registry (ERGaR); Europex; Future Biogas; Gas Distributors for Sustainability (GD4S); Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE); Gasnam-Neutral Transport; GEODE; GHD; Green Gas Certification Scheme (GGCS); Grissan; Hycamite; LMS Energy; Nature Energy; Optimised; Pernod-Ricard; Redbiolac; Renesco; Renewable Gas Alliance; Renewable Gas Forum Ireland (RGFI); Scotch Whisky Association (SWA); Shell; SHV Energy; Slovenská Bioplynová Asociáciá; Southern African Biogas Industry Association (SABIA); STX Group; SUEZ; Swen Capital Partners; The Association for Renewable Energy and Clean Technology (REA); TotalEnergies; UNIDEN; Union of Producers and Employers of Biogas Industry (UPEBI); World Biogas Association (WBA).Joint Letter GHGP Land Sector and Removals Guidance – Impact on Biogas Sector
  • Launched at COP22 in Marrakesh in 2016, the World Biogas Association is the global trade association for the biogas, landfill gas and anaerobic digestion (AD) sectors, and is dedicated to facilitating the recycling of all organic wastes and residues through biogas globally. It believes that the global adoption of biogas technologies is a multi-faceted opportunity to produce clean, renewable energy, bioCO2, natural fertilisers and other valuable bioresources while addressing energy and food security and resolving global issues related to development, public health, and economic growth. www.worldbiogasassociation.org

 

Reaction to Greenhouse Gas Protocol

Brussels, December 2022 – ERGaR reacts to Greenhouse Gas Protocol in Joint Letter 

 

Along with 13 other organisations active in the gas sector, ERGaR has reacted to the proposed changes in the current Greenhouse Gas Protocol of the World Resources Institute.

More specifically, this refers to the new draft on “Land Sector and Removals Guidance”. Here, we have raised serious concerns over the prevention of corporate users from using market-based instruments to report reduced GHG emissions from biomethane consumption. According to the signatories of the letter, this would hinder the European Union’s efforts to develop the goal of producing 35 bcm of domestic biomethane by 2030.

Please find the letter here: 20221130 – Joint letter to GHGP Director – GHG Protocol