A lack of coordination between EU energy and agricultural legislation is creating market distortions that undermine the climate benefits of crop-based biogas substrates, according to partners in the Accel AgroBiogas project.
The issue was highlighted at a recent online policy workshop bringing together expertise from across the biogas value chain to discuss barriers and opportunities for integrating sequential crops, crop residues, and ley grass into sustainable biogas production.
Key themes included the ongoing revision of the EU's Renewable Energy Directive and the recently updated EU Bioeconomy Strategy.
Central to the discussion was the absence of standardised carbon accounting methods in EU legislation. Under the current regulatory framework, verifying improvements in soil carbon content is highly problematic, with field measurements described as often difficult, costly or practically impossible to carry out.
Research also indicates that some effects of cultivation practices on soil properties only become measurable after generations of farming.
The project argues that modelling, rather than field measurements, offers the most reliable basis for documenting changes in soil carbon levels, and that legislation must be updated to reflect this.
The practical consequences of the current system are significant. Crop-based substrates are assigned low climate benefits, making the resulting biogas less commercially attractive. Existing certification systems favour manure, which has driven increasing volumes into biogas production — while feedstocks such as grass, despite their agronomic and climate potential, remain commercially disadvantaged.
The Accel AgroBiogas partnership plans to publish a position paper this spring addressing the coordination gap between energy and agricultural legislation, with a particular focus on the Nordic perspective.
The document will be developed in collaboration with Biogas Denmark and the European Biogas Association.
"With this document, we want to highlight the untapped potential of stronger harmonisation," said Kasper Hamle, EU adviser at Central Denmark EU Office.
“Unharmonised EU legislation holding back crop-based biogas and biomass potential”
