Audience: This webinar on the Union Database for Biofuels (UDB) was open to all interested stakeholders.

Date: Thursday 30 November, 2023
Time: 15:30 GMT

The European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive, Directive (EU) II 2018/2001 (EU-RED II) is the legal framework for the development of renewable energy across all sectors of the EU economy, including transport. Biofuels offer an alternative source to fossil fuels, and have a lot of potential to help the EU meet its binding renewable energy target of at least 32%.  

Article 28 of EU-RED II requires all transactions within the biofuel supply chain, covering liquid and gaseous transport fuels, to be digitally traceable. The tracing will take place through the UDB, which will be managed by the European Commission. Transactions must be entered into the UDB by the relevant economic operators, along with details on the sustainability characteristics of the raw materials. 

Since sugarcane ethanol is helping to advance the biofuel agenda, the digital tracing requirements will impact Bonsucro stakeholders, and use of the platform will be required for the certified mills and supply chain operators importing biofuels into the EU, who hold our EU-RED voluntary add-on.  

Our EU-RED scheme was first recognised by the European Commission in 2012, and covers the cultivation and processing of sugarcane to produce biofuels, bioliquids and biomass fuels for use in the EU. All biofuels imported into the EU must be produced in compliance with EU-RED II. Our add-on enables Bonsucro certified producers to prove that their ethanol has  been produced in compliance with the EU-RED II and therefore biofuels using this ethanol can be imported into the EU.  

In conjunction with The Round Table on Responsible Soy Association and Bioledger (who provide mass balance software synchronised with the UDB), we held a webinar to explain the UDB and what it means for the Bonsucro network. In this webinar we explained the objective of the database, the roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders in the supply chain for biofuels, and gave an update on the upcoming deadlines.  

This webinar was delivered in English and had live interpretation to Portuguese. 

English

Portuguese

Timeline for using the UDB

By 31 December 2023: Bonsucro will have completed the organisational set-up on the UDB and registered all EU-RED certificates

From January 15 2024: Economic operators will be required to register their initial stocks

There is no formal deadline as of yet for registering transactions on the UDB. This may change.

If you are a Bonsucro EU-RED certified entity, Bonsucro will be in contact with you.