Biomethane can help industry progress towards climate neutrality while contributing to Europe’s energy security and industrial competitiveness. In a joint video interview, Nicolai Romanowski (Cefic) and Anna Venturini (European Biogas Association) explore the role biomethane can play for energy‑intensive industries, the need to scale it up through policy support, and how initiatives like the Joint Biomethane Declaration and the Biogas Tripartite Agreement can help unlock its potential.
What is biomethane?
As a renewable gas fully produced in Europe, biomethane offers a practical solution at a time of rising costs, especially for energy-intensive industries such as chemicals. It works with existing infrastructure and industrial processes, avoiding the need to build new value chains.
Despite its potential, biomethane needs policy support to accelerate its roll out. As highlighted in the interview and reflected in the Joint Biomethane Declaration, several barriers remain:
- A cost gap with fossil natural gas;
- Fragmented markets and regulatory barriers, including certification and cross‑border trading rules;
- Insufficient demand for low-carbon and/or circular products produced with/from biomethane.
How can the EU scale biomethane?
In March, industry associations, representing both producers and industrial off‑takers, signed the Joint Biomethane Declaration. The call sends a clear signal that the demand side is ready to invest in biomethane provided there’s policy support to enable fast rollout.
The declaration calls for several initiatives from policy makers, including to:
- Introduce targeted support mechanisms to close the cost gap, especially for energy‑intensive and hard‑to‑abate sectors;
- Remove administrative and regulatory barriers to certification and cross‑border trade;
- Facilitate EU‑wide market integration for biomethane and biomethane‑based products.
“We believe that this type of demand signal is important to send to policymakers to put in place the necessary support. We hope it sends the right signal to both policy makers but also to industry, that the demand side is interested in biomethane if we can tackle those remaining challenges” – Nicolai Romanowski, Senior Energy Manager, Cefic.
The interview also highlights the role of the Biogas Tripartite Agreement, a policy-led forum which brings together EU and national policymakers, producers and industrial users. By providing a structured forum for cooperation, it can help align action at EU and national level, address remaining bottlenecks and support the large‑scale deployment of biomethane across Europe.
“We hope that member states and producers, but also end users will come together to, discussion table and, really align, behind biomethane, show concrete support to the sector and bring to the table concrete solutions to lift these barriers that are still hindering and jeopardising what could be a very fast scale up of the sector. – Anna Venturini, Policy Director, EBA.