Keep knowledgeable with free updates
Merely signal as much as the EU vitality myFT Digest — delivered on to your inbox.
Brussels has raised a stink over the Netherlands allegedly pursuing manure protectionism by attempting to pressure vitality suppliers to make use of biogas made solely from home dung and meals waste.
New guidelines ready by the Dutch authorities would require that biomethane blended with pure fuel should solely be produced from provides of natural waste from the Netherlands.
However the European Fee has taken problem with the transfer, deeming the deliberate restrictions to be an unlawful impediment to commerce, in keeping with a letter from the fee seen by the Monetary Instances.
The Hague has now postponed the introduction of the brand new guidelines by a 12 months to January 2026 because it tussles with Brussels over the measure.
The EU in 2022 set bold targets to make use of biomethane to scale back methane emissions — a fuel about 80 instances stronger than Co2 — in addition to fuel imports from Russia. Biomethane is produced from natural waste akin to manure, meals scraps or broken crops, and will be blended with pure fuel to warmth properties and energy companies.
It’s seen as a possible supply of sustainable energy to back-up risky vitality manufacturing from renewables akin to wind and photo voltaic.
The Dutch have run up a manure mountain from their livestock herds after the EU sharply diminished the quantity farmers have been allowed to unfold on fields due to the dangerous results of nitrogen run-off.
One resolution to appease protesting farmers, proposed by the earlier authorities, was to require fuel suppliers to solely use domestically produced biogas as a part of the brand new Dutch manufacturing targets.
The Netherlands set a biogas goal for 1.1bn cubic metres (bcm) yearly by 2030, with a 3rd produced from manure. That biogas goal is a fivefold improve from 2022 consumption.
The Hague notified the fee of its plans in Might and obtained a stinging rebuke from former inner market commissioner Thierry Breton.
“By solely counting fuel from renewable sources produced from a manufacturing plant situated within the Netherlands, the Dutch authorities suggest laws that establishes a distinction in therapy between home commerce and import commerce in inexperienced fuel items,” Breton wrote, in a letter seen by the FT.
“As such, the laws is to be thought-about as a measure having equal impact to a quantitative restriction on imported inexperienced fuel items,” opposite to EU legislation, the Frenchman wrote.
Dutch officers argue that they can’t be certain of the origin of imported biogas with out an EU-wide certification system. For that purpose they’ll solely ensure that Dutch manufacturing counts in direction of wider EU manufacturing targets set by Brussels.
Two EU diplomats mentioned that different nations had launched related obligations however had merely not notified the fee, as they’re sure to do below EU legislation.
In 2022 the EU set an annual biomethane manufacturing goal of 35 bcm. In June 2024 it hit 5.2 bcm, up greater than a 3rd on the 12 months earlier than, in keeping with the European Biogas Association.
The Dutch local weather ministry mentioned: “The Netherlands is eager to extend the share of inexperienced fuel within the Netherlands to extend consumption and manufacturing of renewable vitality and turn into much less depending on the import of pure fuel.
“In the mean time we’re speaking to the European Fee about this notification response to see if we are able to discover a resolution that works for the Netherlands and works for the fee.”
