25th April 2024
We have updated the Bonsucro EU-RED II Standard in line with new requirements from the European Commission.
In 2022, the European Commission revised its rules to verify sustainability and greenhouse gas emission saving criteria which include low, indirect land-use change-risk criteria. The new rules are reflected in the Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/996 and are legally binding.
Version 2.0 of the Bonsucro EU-RED Standard incorporates those changes.
What does this mean for certificate holders?
All Bonsucro EU-RED certificates that were issued in compliance with version 1.0 of the Bonsucro EU-RED Standard will remain valid, and no re-certification is needed. However, upcoming audits will be done against version 2.0, as compliance with the updated EU-RED Standard starts from the day the document was formalised – on 8 April 2024. All certificate holders will be notified by their certification body.
What is the Bonsucro EU-RED Standard?
As a clean, affordable and low-carbon biofuel, sugarcane ethanol has emerged as a leading renewable fuel. Ethanol is becoming a popular choice for decarbonisation. But environmental gains can only be made from plant-derived ethanol if it’s produced in a sustainable way.
While bio-based ethanol is on the rise, producers and buyers are under growing scrutiny for the practices in their supply chains. The European Commission created the Renewable Energy Directive, or EU-RED, a legal framework to develop clean energy across all member countries. Part of this Directive is to ensure that biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels can only be imported into the European Union if they have sustainability credentials.
Bonsucro is one of the officially approved schemes, meaning that Bonsucro-certified ethanol can be imported into the European Union if the Production Standard or Chain of Custody Standard is accompanied by Bonsucro EU-RED Standard certification. The Bonsucro EU-RED Standard is a voluntary add-on and is used in conjunction with the applicable Bonsucro Standards. It regroups requirements relating to Production, Mass Balance Chain of Custody, the certification and audit process, and accreditation.
We have seen a significant upwards trend in the production of ethanol from sugarcane – between 2011 and 2021, the volume of Bonsucro-certified ethanol rose by 420%. Of the 24.4 million m3 of ethanol produced in that period, across 18 countries, 21.4 million m3 has been certified as EU-RED, showing the importance of the European market to our members.
Half of all Bonsucro Production Standard certificate holders hold EU RED certification as well. In total, 106 business entities across 12 countries, including Brazil, Colombia and Thailand, are certified against our EU-RED Standard.
What’s next
All Bonsucro EU-RED certified members will be contacted by their certification bodies. They can also speak to their account managers for any questions. To support our members, we will develop some training materials which will be available in May . We will also run webinars to explain the changes, the dates of these will be available soon and will be shared directly with certified members.
In addition, we will train all licenced certification bodies on the new implementation rules.
The European Union has further revised its Renewable Energy Directive. The Amending Directive (EU) 2023/2413 – known as EU-RED III – was published towards the end of 2023. Our Standards team is preparing further revisions to comply with EU-RED III. There is a transition period of 18 months for all accreditation schemes to alter their systems. We will supply updates about the next revision later this year.
You can read more about the Bonsucro EU-RED Standard and download the relevant documents here.
