Common Futures supported the creation of the Biomethane Industrial Partnership (BIP). The BIP is a collaboration between the European Commission, EU Member States and the biomethane industry aimed at achieving 35 billion m³ (bcm) of annual production of sustainable biomethane by 2030, as included in the REPowerEU plan.
Common Futures supported Guidehouse and the Gas for Climate consortium (including European Biogas Association, EBA) in a series of dialogues between a group of companies from the biomethane value chain. The dialogues lead to a declaration ‘Our Vision on Biomethane’ that voiced the ambition to scale up biomethane to 350 TWh (~33bcm) 2030 and expressed the desire to partner with European institutions and national authorities. We helped to organise a webinar in December 2021, at which ‘Our Vision on Biomethane’ was presented to Kadri Simson, European Commissioner for Energy.
Supporting the European Biogas Association, we followed up with the Cabinet of (former) EVP Frans Timmermans to discuss the scale up potential of biomethane to replace natural gas, in particular imports from Russia. The REPowerEU plan of May 2022 included a target to scale up sustainable biomethane to 35 bcm annual production by 2030. The plan announced the creation of an industrial biogas and biomethane partnership, which would become the Biomethane Industrial Partnership (BIP). A Biomethane Action Plan, with a list of tangible actions to accelerate biomethane, was published together with the REPowerEU plan.
Shortly thereafter, Common Futures supported the creation of the BIP work programme and the organisation of the formal launch with EVP Timmermans and Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, EBA CEO Harmen Dekker and Nature Energy CEO Ole Hvelplund at the European Sustainable Energy Week on 28 September 2022. This was followed a month later by a technical launch of the BIP with Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski and EBA CEO Harmen Dekker.
Since then, BIP activities are in full swing. The work is structured in five Task Forces, with participation of various European Commission DGs, 21 EU Member States and around 50 industry actors, including biomethane project developers, investors, producers and users. All deliverables will be published here.
Common Futures provided valuable support in creating the Biomethane Industrial Partnership. They recognised that biomethane punches below its weight and has a high energy system value for Europe. With their vision and strong network, they were well placed to support EBA to develop the BIP in close cooperation with the European Commission. They also helped to create its work programme.
Harmen Dekker
CEO, European Biogas Association
