Susanna Pflüger, EBA: Financing a sustainable future with biogas at its heart
Prior to The World Biogas Summit, where Susanna Pflüger, Secretary General, EBA will join the panel session Financing a sustainable future with biogas at its heart, on 6th October, we spoke to Susanna about this year’s theme, There’s no net zero without biogas, what needs to be done to get there and what she will cover in her panel session.
What role do you see biogas having in a Net Zero future?
A smart combination of renewable electricity and gas seems the cheapest and most effective way to achieve a climate neutral energy system. Biogas should primarily be used where it brings the highest socio-economic and environmental benefits. Biomethane does not need excessive investments in new infrastructure; it profits from the existing gas grid, gas boilers & heat pumps, CNG cars, etc. Therefore, gasous and liquified forms of biomethane have a great potential to substitute natural gas use in industry, heating and transport sectors, including sea transport and heavy long-haul transport.
What are the largest obstacles your region/country needs to overcome in order for the biogas industry to reach its full potential?
The EU must set-up the principles of technology neutrality and source neutrality as the key guiding principles, the current policies favour too much electricity as a sort of silver bullet.
We also need to further align the different policies as the legal framework in the EU lacks consistency and coherence: taking an example from the transport sector: biomethane is recognized as an advanced biofuel contributing towards the 2030 targets and bio-CNG and bio-LNG are alternative fuels under the scope of the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Directive but then again, CNG and LNG vehicles are not supported in the vehicle regulations that aim at zero tailpipe emissions.
What will you be focusing on your presentation at The World Biogas Summit?
I will focus on taxonomy in the EU’s upcoming sustainable finance legislation that will need to be consistent with the existing legislation and should treat different energy carriers and infrastructures equally.
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Hear more from Susanna at 1.45pm (BST), on day 1 at The World Biogas Summit, 6-8 October. Susanna will speak alongside Marc Sadler of The World Bank, Camilla Nordheim-Larsen, Programme Manager, UNCCD and Sachhin Patra, Senior Manager, Climate Change Advisory, EKI Energy Services Limited.
