steps towards the development of a certification system for ...

ecent years three documents which contain ambitious targets for the use of bio-energy inthe EU have been released. The so called ´Green paper´, which was adopted by theEuropean Commission (EC) in 1996, envisages an increase of the use of renewableenergy in the EU-15 to 12% of the primary energy use by 2010 [11]. In the so called`White Paper`, adopted by the EC in 1997, a contribution of 5700 PJ from biomass in2010 is projected [12]; and the Directive on biofuels, which was issued in spring 2003,strives for the increase of the consumption of biofuels to 2% of the diesel and gasolineconsumption in 2005 and to 5.75% in 2010 [13]. It is expected that these EU documents,national support mechanisms (e.g. the Renewable energy law in Germany) and greencertificates will boost bio-energy trading [2].On the background of rising bio-energy trade activities concerns arise on the potentialnegative impacts of these activities. Major concerns are that biomass production couldcompete with food production and lead to regional food and energy supply shortage indeveloping countries [6, 8]. Experiences with the introduction of cash crops, for examplesoybean in Bolivia, showed negative impacts like deforestation (to gain agricultural land)and a shift of landownership to big farms being owned by foreign investors [14]. For thisreason criteria and tools are searched for that help to avoid that biomass, unsustainablyproduced, is sold as ‘sustainable resource’ for the production of ‘green electricity’ inEurope In the forestry sector certification was introduced in 1993 as a tool to avoidunsustainable forest management. The development of certification systems in forestrywas a market based response to address public concerns related to deforestation in thetropics, resulting loss of biodiversity and the perceived low quality of forest managementin areas where traded wood products are sourced from. The introduction of forestcertification was spearheaded by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and a range ofother schemes have become operational by the end of the last decade [15]. Certification isthe process whereby an independent third-party (called a certifier or certification body)assesses the quality of management in relation to a set of predetermined requirements(the standard). The certifier gives a written assurance that a product or process conformsto the requirements specified in the standard [15]. The ’requirements’ are mostlyformulated as criteria that have to be fulfilled for the certification of a product or aproduction process. Certification is also applied in other fields than forestry, for examplein agriculture. The first environmental label for organic agriculture was introduced 1991at the European level [16]. The initiative was taken from retailers, food processors,auctioneers and farmers to reduce the negative impact of intensive agriculture onenvironment and biodiversity [17]. Another important aim of certification in agriculturewas to improve the marketability of the product and the transparency to the consumersince it was found that consumer prefer labeled products because they think that labeledproducts are safer and healthier [18]. It can be concluded that certification caters formany different peers and their interests (table 1).First initiatives on the development of labels for green electricity from biomass weretaken by the Dutch energy company Essent and by EUGENE (European GreenElectricity Networks). The ‘Green Gold certificate’ of the Dutch utility EssentSustainable Energy is a track-and-trace system that provides control over the origin oftraded biomass [19]. EUGENE defines which resources for renewable energy (including6