News item | 22-04-2022 | 15:15
The cabinet has decided to immediately stop new subsidies for woody bio-based raw materials for low-grade heat. This specifically concerns the production of low-temperature heat (100°C) from woody bio-based raw materials. This heat is mainly used for heating buildings and greenhouses.
Minister Jetten for Climate and Energy: ‘Bio raw materials play an important role in achieving a climate-neutral and circular economy. Bio-raw materials are crucial to become less dependent on fossil raw materials, certainly in sectors where there are limited or no sustainable alternatives. At the same time, the government is aware of social concerns about bio-based raw materials. That is why we have decided to immediately stop granting subsidies for woody bio-based raw materials for low-grade heat.’
The government’s approach is that sustainable bio-based raw materials should be used where they make the greatest contribution to sustainability and where alternatives are limited. These kinds of high-quality applications will continue to be supported. Examples of high-quality applications include bioconcrete, paint based on bio-based raw materials instead of fossil raw materials, green gas as a replacement for natural gas, or as a fuel for heavy road transport, aviation and maritime shipping, where biofuels offer an alternative as high-quality diesel substitutes.
In order to guarantee the sustainability of the bio-based raw materials used, the Netherlands is focusing on further tightening of the European sustainability criteria for bio-based raw materials in the negotiations on the European Renewable Energy Directive. The cabinet will lay this down in legislation and regulations, together with the requirements from the Sustainability Framework for Biobased Raw Materials. The government will also further tighten up the certification of imported bio-based raw materials and bio-based materials from our own country.
With this decision, the government is building on the Sustainability Framework for Bio-Raw Materials that was presented to the House in October 2020 and the SER recommendation Biomass in Balance (July 2020), to which the social partners, the energy sector, industry and nature and environmental organizations have contributed. contributed.