Biomass sustainability

This consultation proposes minor technical adjustments to five specific aspects of the existing or planned reporting requirements and sustainability criteria for biomass, which were previously announced in August 2013 in the Government response to the consultation on proposals to enhance sustainability criteria for the use of biomass feedstocks under the Renewables Obligation (RO).

The proposals are:

• Proposal 1: to revise the Saw Logs definition in the Renewables Obligation (RO)
• Proposal 2: to reconsider the reporting requirements for tree species in the RO
• Proposal 3: to provide exemptions from the Timber Standard for certain categories of wood for the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) and RO
• Proposal 4: to add ‘highly biodiverse grasslands’ to the list of protected land types for the RHI and RO
• Proposal 5: averaging of Greenhouse Gas Emissions across the year in the RO

All of the proposals would apply to the RO in England & Wales. Only proposals 3 and 4 would apply to the RHI in England, Scotland and Wales. It is our intention that the forthcoming FIDeR contracts and generic Contracts for Difference (CfD) awarded under the Electricity Market Reform will follow the same approach as the sustainability criteria set under the RO.

We have also published a copy of the ‘Forestry Commission field book 9: classification and presentation of soft saw logs’ which is relevant to proposal 1 - to revise the definition of saw logs in the RO (see paragraphs 3.4 to 3.8 of the consultation document).