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Regulation No. 686 of the Cabinet of Ministers on sustainability and greenhouse gas emissions savings criteria, criteria for electricity produced from biomass fuel and procedures for justifying, certifying and monitoring compliance with said criteria.

Country/Territory
Latvia
Document type
Regulation
Date
2022 (2023)
Source
FAO, FAOLEX
Subject
Air & atmosphere, Energy, Environment gen., Forestry
Keyword
Emissions Climate change Biofuel Certification Monitoring Authorization/permit Enforcement/compliance Energy conservation/energy production Biodiversity Forest management/forest conservation Public forest Forestry protection measures Protected area Ecosystem preservation
Geographical area
Europe, Europe and Central Asia, European Union Countries, Northern Europe
Abstract

This Regulation establishes essential requirements for a specific type of fuel, as well as for electricity produced from forest biomass with a view of ensuring sustainability and greenhouse gas emission saving criteria and specific criteria for electricity, as well as a mechanism for monitoring and checking their implementation and compliance with the requirements; and appoints institutions that carry out compliance certification in the regulated sphere, sets forth voluntary schemes and their monitoring procedures, as well as institutions that carry out compliance certification and supervision of the object of conformity assessment. Biomass fuel must meet the sustainability and greenhouse gas emission savings criteria if: (a) it is used in an installation for the production of electricity, heat, energy for cooling or refrigeration, or for the production of fuels, the total nominal input heat output of which, summing up the output of all stationary technological combustion equipment, is 20 megawatts (MW) or more in the case of solid biomass fuel, or 2 megawatts (MW ) or greater in the case of gaseous biomass fuel; and (b) it is used in a facility for the production of electricity, thermal energy, energy required for cooling or freezing, or in a fuel production facility where, in accordance with the regulations on pollution, the polluting activities included in the European Union emission allowance trading system are carried out and which requires a greenhouse gas emission permit. Biofuel, bioliquid fuel, biomass fuel and biomass fuel produced from agricultural biomass must not be produced from raw materials obtained from high biodiversity value land areas, that is, land that was granted on or after January 2008 one of the following statuses (whether or not the land still has this status): (a) primeval forests and other forest lands; (b) biodiverse forest and other wooded land that is rich in species and not degraded or recognized as land of high biological diversity; (c) protected areas; (d) micro-reserves created for the protection of protected species and protected habitats and territories that protect rare, threatened or endangered ecosystems; and (e) grasslands and meadows with high biological diversity.

Full text
Latvian
Website
www.likumi.lv