A. Relevance and sustainability context
A.1 Policy relevance
The monitoring of the usage of biofuels from different sources is included in several EU and national policies. With biofuels, the intent relates to an option for emission mitigation in the transport sector, with the overarching objective to reach climate goals set in the Climate mitigation program 2030 of the German government. With a focus on increasing the sustainability of the transport sector in general and reaching EU goals, a shift into more residue and waste-based biomass resources is connected and monitored by the Federal Ministry of Environment, Climate Action, Nature conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN). The following EU and national policies, strategies and systems are related to the usage and production of bio-based fuels:
EU:
- Renewable Energy Directive (RED II & RED III):
- Union Database (UDB)
- Fuel Quality Directive (FQD)
- EU Bioeconomy Monitoring System (BMS)
National:
- Climate mitigation programm 2030
- Bundes-Immissionsschutzgesetz (BImSchV)
- Biofuel Sustainability Ordinance (Biokraft-NachV)
- Sustainable Biomass System (Nabis)
- DEHSt Conventional Biofuel Market Reports
The indicator illustrates the origin of biomass used for fuels, based on consumption statistics.
A.2 Sustainability and / or comparative evaluation options
To put the indicator into perspective, overall fuel consumption and use could be used. Further, the amount of biomass in correspondence with area used, would be also an important indicator. For an overarching perspective, the land use for biofuels could be compared to other indicators such as land use for feed production. An overall CO2 emission benchmark could illustrate further sustainability thresholds and systemic impacts of implementation of biofuels for different sectors.
The data set is used for monitoring the goals set by quotas for the transport sector for emission mitigation. The indicator becomes useful if a timeseries is generated and for international comparison reasons.
Additionally it supports to quantify the amount of biomass used for fuel production. It could be used to describe the potential of biofuel production from German resources in comparison to the Resource data base (DBFZ). Further it could support monitoring fraud activities relating to resources used for biofuel production.
Within the same data set the origin of the biomass used for the production is given which could support the benchmark for land used for production. In the Eurostat database the overall fuel consumption is given and could be used as comparative benchmark.
For the further benchmarking activities several data sets have to be connected and are not included in the data sets itself.
B. Data availability
B.1 Stage of development
The indicator is not established, but the database to derive indicator is well established.
B.2 Data sources
For the indicator two data sources are available on the national and EU level.
National level: Within the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE), Evaluations- und Erfahrungsbericht Biomassestrom-Nachhaltigkeitsverordnung; Biokraftstoff-Nachhaltigkeitsverordnung specific biomass sources for the production of biofuels are reported.
EU Level: On EU level consumption statistics are available along the monitoring activities of the RED III regulation. The indicators are aligned to the Annex categories of the RED and categorisation between food and feed crops:
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/nrg_ind_urtd__custom_22258716/default/table
B.3 Coverage over time and replicability
National level data is available from 2012-2024.
EU level data is available from 2015-2023 for "sustainable biofuels" as defined along Annex Part A & B and from 2021-2024 for Sustainable biofuels from food and feed crops. The update for data is annually based on reporting obligation.
B.4 Coverage across scales and sectors; compatibility
The indicator is reported on national level scales and on international reporting obligations for the Eurostat database according to the RED regulation. There is no sectoral breakdown as it is consumption statistics.
C. Considerations for operationalization
C.1 Feasibility: Fit for monitoring
The indicator is fit for monitoring. It has between both database acceptable uncertainty due to additional data summarizing, but in general is methodically sound.
C.2 Institutions
For representing the data, the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE) and Eurostat Database is responsible. Calculation of the specific indicator is not yet established.
C.3 Future prospects
The indicator is used for obligating monitoring in regards to RED regulation, and therefore continuation is assured. Possibly monitoring will shift towards UDB (Union database) once implemented.
C.4 Costs, considerations and reproducibility
As the data is already reported and open available there will be no cost connected to data sharing.
C.5 Potential for automation
Strong: If automation can use the data as published in pdf format for national more detailed analysis. From the EU level in a more aggregated form automation is possible.
C.6 Presentation options and breakdown / sub-indicator needs
Data can be shown by biomass type used for biofuel production or by RED resource classification in a time series.
C.7 Potential for scenario integration
Yes, scenario integration is possible in regards to shares of waste/residue-based biofuels vs. food/feed based biofuels. This can be implemented based on historical data as well as to illustrate impacts of different systemic levels for biofuel usage an production.
C.8 Interlinkages and alignment with other monitoring activities
Yes to the JRC Biomass monitoring mandate for this. See figure 15 in following report: https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC140117.