Trade barriers and traded volumes of sustainable biomass in the Netherlands

Abstract

Introduction, aims and method Following the target of 20% renewable energy in 2020 in the EU as defined in the renewable energy directive (RED), the Netherlands are obliged to reach a 14% share of renewable energy in total final energy consumption in 2020. The Dutch renewable energy action plan (published in summer 2010) specifies the increase in consumption of renewable electricity and transportation fuels to meet 2020 targets. It is very likely (and stated in the Dutch action plan) that both solid and liquid biomass will contribute heavily to the increasing use of renewable energy in the Netherlands in the next ten years. As the domestic biomass potential is limited, and biomass imported from both EU countries and outside the EU may be available at the same cost (or even less) than domestic streams, it is expected that the import of biomass to the Netherlands will further increase in the coming years. Dutch policy makers also see the need for imports, but are also concerned regarding the sustainable production of bioenergy abroad. Since 2008, NL Agency executes the program: “Global Sustainable Biomass” (DBM) and in 2009 it became executive body of the program “Sustainable Biomass Import (DBI), the latter being part of the program “Biobased Economy” within the Innovation Agenda. The goal of DBM is to support developing countries to produce biomass for energy purposes more sustainably, considering the access to local and international energy market. The goal of the DBI program is to give an impulse to the development of sustainable international biomass supply chains for energy and chemical applications. In 2009 and 2010, approximately 20 million euro of subsidy was allocated to 45 projects, in which market actors and research institutes aim to increase the sustainability of biomass production in developing countries and realize import of biomass to the Netherlands. To guarantee the import of sufficient (verified sustainably produced) biomass, it is of interest to obtain an overview of possible market and trade barriers that currently hamper the international bioenergy trade towards the Netherlands, or may do so in the future.