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Voluntary schemes and EU Certifications
Voluntary schemes are independent certification frameworks used to demonstrate that biofuels, bioliquids, biomass fuels, and in some cases renewable hydrogen and its derivatives (RFNBOs) and recycled carbon fuels (RCF) comply with EU sustainability and greenhouse-gas (GHG) saving requirements under the Renewable Energy Directive.
They complement national certification approaches and provide a practical way for economic operators to prove compliance across complex supply chains. (Renewable Energy Directive – RED III (EU/2023/2413))
What they typically certify:
Recognition criteria
For a scheme to be recognised by the Commission, it must fulfil criteria such as
The decision recognising a voluntary scheme has usually a legal period of validity of 5 years.
The Commission has so far formally recognised 18 voluntary and national certification scheme.
In practice, certified operators are audited against scheme rules, and the certification outputs are used to support compliance reporting and market claims within the EU renewable energy framework.
They complement national certification approaches and provide a practical way for economic operators to prove compliance across complex supply chains. (Renewable Energy Directive – RED III (EU/2023/2413))
What they typically certify:
- Land and biodiversity safeguards: feedstock should not come from areas with high biodiversity value, and production should avoid conversion of high-carbon-stock land. (RED III – EU/2023/2413)
- GHG emissions performance: fuels must meet minimum GHG savings thresholds, using defined calculation methods and default values where applicable. (RED II – EU/2018/2001)
- Traceability / chain of custody: documentation and auditing track raw materials and fuels through the supply chain to reduce fraud risk and support robust claims. (Union Database – UDB)
- RFNBO-specific rules (where covered): certification can include checks that the electricity used for renewable hydrogen is renewable under the EU’s additionality/temporal/geographic correlation framework. (RFNBO electricity rules – Delegated Regulation (EU) 2023/1184)
Recognition criteria
For a scheme to be recognised by the Commission, it must fulfil criteria such as
- feedstock producers comply with the sustainability criteria and the criteria for RFNBOs production set out in the Renewable Energy Directive and its implementing legislation
- information on the sustainability characteristics can be traced to the origin of the feedstock
- all information is well documented
- companies are audited before they start to participate in the scheme and retroactive audits take place regularly
- the auditors have both the generic and specific auditing skills needed with regard to the scheme’s criteria
The decision recognising a voluntary scheme has usually a legal period of validity of 5 years.
The Commission has so far formally recognised 18 voluntary and national certification scheme.
In practice, certified operators are audited against scheme rules, and the certification outputs are used to support compliance reporting and market claims within the EU renewable energy framework.
