A broad alliance of associations representing biofuel producers has urged the European Commission (EC) to postpone the deadline extending the scope of the Union Data Base (UDB), an EU-wide traceability system for sustainable renewable fuels.
The UDB is mandatory for fuel manufacturers, traders, importers and suppliers and documents the entire life cycle of renewable fuels, renewable liquid and gaseous fuels of non-biogenic origin, and recycled carbonaceous fuels.
It aims to ensures transparency in the market for renewable fuels, prevent fraud, promote sustainability and support the achievement of EU climate targets.
Last year, in a bid to enhance the UDB’s traceability, the EU’s revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED) allowed the EC to extend the scope of the UDB to include information from the point of production/collection of raw materials used to produce biofuels.
After launching a period of consultation, the EC proposed to update the UDB and submit it to the European Parliament and Council before the end of the year.
In their joint appeal to EC President Ursula von der Leyen on 12 November, the associations criticised the UDB’s lack of a decisive legal basis for implementation.
In addition, the associations said many technical implementation problems and liability and data protection issues remained unresolved despite being raised repeatedly.
The claims of the alliance, which included Germany’s Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP) and the German Farmers' Association (DBV), backed up a letter sent to the EC by 16 EU member states.
Although the UDB was generally regarded in the industry as a useful instrument for increased transparency and security in certification, without the necessary corrections, the alliance said it was concerned many first-time producers and traders would withdraw from the trade in sustainable raw materials and that domestic goods would be replaced by imports from third countries.
“This cannot be in line with the EU’s climate targets and would also be counterproductive with regard to the desired sovereignty in energy supply,” the associations said.
Against this background, the alliance said it believed that mandatory use of the UDB should be postponed until at least 1 January 2026.
“In order to ensure that a functional and practicable database is made available by the Commission, an expert group consisting of representatives of the Member States and affected companies should therefore be set up in the near future to make recommendations for necessary adjustments to the current database,” the alliance said in its letter.
“As a result, the legislative process for a delegated regulation on the use of the UDB, which has already begun, would also have to be stopped. If this does not happen, we expect that many first gathering points and retailers will opt out of sustainability certification.”
