During an intense week of activity, AVEBIOM has participated in several events of strategic relevance for the bioenergy sector in Europe, where it has defended the need to carry out lobbying work to avoid the unification of heat pumps and biomass stoves in the regulations. European eco-labeling.
"We are working closely with Bioenergy Europe to ensure that eco-labeling fairly reflects the unique features and benefits of biomass stoves, and to avoid artificial barriers to their commercialization," says Javier Díaz, president of AVEBIOM.
Within the framework of General Assembly of Bioenergy Europe At its 20th meeting on XNUMX November, AVEBIOM stressed the importance of avoiding the unification of biomass stoves and heat pumps within the eco-labelling. This change, currently under consideration, could constitute an artificial barrier to the marketing of biomass stoves, with a negative impact on both manufacturers and consumers.
Heat pumps and biomass stoves are technologies with different uses, efficiencies and applications, so joint labelling could cause confusion among consumers, affecting their ability to choose solutions appropriate to their energy needs. In addition, this unification would disproportionately favour heat pumps, reducing the competitiveness of Biomass, a key technology for the decarbonisation of the residential sector and to achieve European climate objectives.
A week for bioenergy
During the assembly, the action plan for 2025 was approved, which provides for lobbying work at European level to prevent this unification and other actions such as the creation of a new Working Group dedicated to Promote the use of biomass in industrial applications or the revitalization of the Bioenergy Days campaign to raise awareness of bioenergy at European and national level.
In addition, Bioenergy Europe renewed almost half of its board of directors, following the recent amendment of the statutes to promote gender balance. Currently, approximately 40% of the board members are women, reflecting the sector's commitment to diversity.
The conference took place on November 20 and 21 European Bioenergy Future (EBF2024), organised by Bioenergy Europe, where cutting-edge topics such as bioenergy with carbon capture (BECCS) or biochar were addressed. The Spanish MEP Nicolás González Casares, who has worked on the Renewables Directive Review, participated online, highlighting the role of bioenergy in European climate objectives: “Without bioenergy we will not be able to achieve zero emissions.”
Also last week the General Assembly of the European Pellet Council, managing entity of the ENplus® seal worldwide and chaired by Pablo Rodero, head of certification at AVEBIOM. During the meeting on 19 November, an assessment was made of the initiatives undertaken this year to promote pellets as a sustainable fuel in Europe and the actions and budget for 2025 were approved.
The agenda closed on November 21 with two technical events: one ENplus training for quality managers, held in Belgium, and a technical conference focused on gasification and pyrolysis. These technologies are capable of producing biochar and contributing to carbon sequestration, and can constitute an efficient way to synthesize sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).