The Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Affiliation (ADBA) alongside main companies from UK trade and the biogas sector, has written to the Secretary of State for Vitality Safety and Internet Zero, Ed Miliband MP, calling for the pressing recognition of biomethane as a Internet Zero gasoline. The letter warns that failure to behave swiftly dangers jeopardising the UK’s Internet Zero targets and placing over £8 billion of personal sector funding in danger.
The letter, co-written by Chair and former Secretary of State Chris Huhne and Chief Govt Charlotte Morton OBE, has been signed by over 95 trade representatives and companies, together with one of many UK’s greatest commerce unions, the GMB, and every of Nice Britain’s and Northern Eire’s gasoline distribution networks. The signatories name on Ed Miliband to substantiate that biomethane will probably be handled as a web zero gasoline throughout the UK Emissions Buying and selling Scheme (UK ETS) to completely recognise its worth inside our web zero ambitions, and to unlock world funding on this primed and able to develop inexperienced sector.
Commenting on the letter, ADBA Chair Chris Huhne stated “The UK biogas trade is being unfairly penalised beneath the present guidelines of the Emissions Buying and selling Scheme (ETS). Biomethane – an typically carbon destructive expertise – is handled the identical as climate-wrecking fossil gasoline. It is unnecessary, and it’s holding again funding within the infrastructure we have to attain web zero.”
Andy Prendergast, Nationwide Secretary of the GMB, stated of the union’s assist for the letter: “The gasoline community not solely heats and powers hundreds of thousands of properties and companies, it additionally helps a whole bunch of 1000’s of well-paid jobs. Recognising inexperienced gases like biomethane as Internet Zero fuels beneath the UK Emissions Buying and selling Scheme not solely offers us a path in the direction of web zero, it additionally offers a technique to defend these livelihoods while constructing a viable export trade. We have to seize this chance with each arms.”
The letter highlights the vital position biomethane might play in web zero if ETS recognition is granted, notably within the hard-to-decarbonise areas reminiscent of chemical substances and manufacturing sectors.
It states. “[Biomethane] helps rural economies, displaces fossil fuels, and cuts methane emissions. […] It additionally performs a vital position in decarbonising high-value industrial sectors which are important to the UK’s nationwide safety and financial resilience.”
By this open letter, ADBA and the biogas trade name on the Secretary of State to:
- Verify that biomethane injected into the UK’s gasoline grid will probably be eligible beneath the UK ETS as a web zero gasoline in the identical method as sustainable aviation gasoline
- Guarantee UK ETS guidelines absolutely mirror biomethane’s full worth
- Set out a transparent timeline for implementation to offer the market confidence,
They conclude: “Builders and buyers urgently want readability and affirmation that the total web zero worth of biomethane will probably be recognised. Additional delays threaten to stall a sector that is able to scale and ship.”
“That is a direct alternative to unlock development, speed up decarbonisation, and produce ahead billions in personal funding. We urge you to behave now.”
