The event brought together experts from industry, academia, and policy, fostering a dynamic exchange of perspectives.

In this context, the contribution of David Chiaramonti (Polititecnico di Torino), Chair of the CEM Biofuture Platform Initiative, helped deepen the discussion by shifting the focus towards the systemic role of renewable fuels and sustainable carbon in the transition. His intervention explored how biofuels and biomaterials could contribute not only to decarbonising transport and industry, but also to strengthening energy security and enabling new economic opportunities at both European and global levels.
Chiaramonti emphasised that the transition cannot rely solely on reducing emissions, but requires a broader rethinking of carbon itself. He argued that sustainable carbon sources, including bio-based, recycled, and captured carbon, are essential to replace fossil inputs, particularly in sectors such as chemicals, where carbon remains a structural element. His presentation highlighted how the development of integrated value chains, alongside innovations in the bioeconomy and carbon removal, could help bridge the economic gap that still limits the large-scale deployment of advanced biofuels.
A significant part of his analysis addressed the European dimension, noting that sufficient sustainable biomass resources were projected to be available in the coming decades, but that the real challenge lay in mobilising these resources effectively. He raised critical questions about whether current policies and market conditions were aligned with long-term decarbonisation targets, particularly in sectors such as sustainable aviation fuels, where deployment still lags behind ambitions. The intervention also extended to the international level through the experience of the Biofuture Platform, underlining the importance of global cooperation in setting standards, sharing best practices, and creating enabling policy frameworks.

Overall, the summit demonstrated how deeply intertwined technological innovation, policy design, and economic viability have become in the energy transition. By the end of the event, it was clear that achieving climate neutrality would require not only new solutions, but also a more integrated vision capable of connecting sectors, value chains, and international efforts into a coherent strategy.

Advanced biofuels can be sustainably produced domestically, the report concludes, without dependencies for technologies and feedstock. EU-coordinated financial support for capacity development of essential industrial value chains would be necessary. It should cover industrial production development and feedstock supply mobilisation by farmers and feedstock aggregators.

According to the report, achieving EU targets will require a portfolio of complementary solutions for 2030-2040, made up from a diverse mix of technologies. This is needed so that the full range of eligible feedstocks can be used to produce the complete spectrum of necessary fuels.

Download the full report “Mobilization of Industrial Capacity Building for Advanced Biofuels”

Through developing business models of industrial value chains, the report estimates that financial support will be required to close the gap between the biofuels’ Levelised Cost of Production (LCoP) and the market price of their fossil fuel counterparts. By 2030, annual financial support to build industrial plants for biofuel production would need to range between €3.8 and €7.5 billion.

Additional annual support of €700 million to €1.25 billion would be required as a direct disbursement to farmers and aggregators for providing the necessary feedstock. Even higher level of support would be needed for deployment towards 2040. Existing EU funding schemes and instruments at EU level, such as the InvestEU, the Connecting Europe Facility, the European Regional Development Fund, and the Common Agricultural Policy Pillar I and II instruments, can incentivise industrial capacity building and feedstock supply.

Finally, the report stresses that financial measures should be complemented by administrative support. Better alignment between the Common Agricultural Policy and the Renewable Energy Directive would be needed, as well as improvements in registries and sustainability certification system.

Download the executive summary: Mobilization of Industrial Capacity Building for Advanced Biofuels

Read the article on the EC DG Research and Innovation website

The meeting was attended by EU Parliament members, industries, academia, associations, and international organizations. The panel addressed the state of the sector, the related policies, and what is needed to achieve the European Green Deal goals. As emerged from the discussion, reaching climate neutrality will require all available technologies, supported by cooperation and policy coherence across sectors.

Chair Chiaramonti reported about the CEM Biofuture Platform Initiative, its membership, and the current Action Plan (2025-2027). In addition, he presented the key messages from the IEA report “Delivering Sustainable Fuels” and the content of the “4xBelém pledge”. 

Download the meeting agenda

As Industry leaders from across the sustainable biofuels value chain, we express our full support for ambitious climate and energy policies and the need to reduce GHG emissions from all modes of transport and industry.

We applaud the leadership of Brazil, India, Italy, and Japan for introducing the Belém 4X Pledge for Sustainable Fuels that creates a collective, global goal of quadrupling (4X) the use of sustainable fuels by 2035 from a 2024 baseline.

We recognize that this COP30 Global Sustainable Fuels Declaration builds on prior international statements, efforts, and initiatives to enable the use of sustainable biofuels to reduce emissions from all modes of transport and industry sectors, including inter alia:

• International Energy Agency Report on Delivering Sustainable Fuels: Pathways to 2035[1]
• Turin Joint Statement on Sustainable Biofuels,
• Clean Energy Ministerial Future Fuels Action Plan,
• International Civil Aviation Organization efforts to achieve Net-Zero Aviation,
• Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative,
• Global Biofuels Alliance,
• Clean Energy Ministerial Biofuture Platform Initiative, and
• Biofuture Industry Council.

We acknowledge that despite these efforts, much more must be done at the international, national, and sub-national level to realize the potential for sustainable biofuels and bio-based chemicals and materials to reduce emissions from transportation and industry; and as such,

We endorse the Belém 4X Pledge for Sustainable Fuels and call upon the countries of the Clean Energy Ministerial Biofuture Platform Initiative to significantly strengthen both international collaboration and national efforts to:

1. Increase the use of Sustainable Biofuels and Bio-based Chemicals to reduce GHG emissions for all modes of transport and industry
2. Fully support the spirit and joint actions inspired by the COP30 Global Sustainable Fuels Declaration

In support of this Call to Action:

We recommend that countries recognize the  considerable benefits from a vigorous sustainable biofuels and bio-based chemicals sector and value chains, including inter alia:

• Increasing energy security, by diversifying energy sources, reducing fuel import dependence, and advancing domestic production.
• Ease integrating into existing logistics, storage and distribution.
• Promoting a culture of circular economy, resilience, and local value creation with well-designed, sustainable bio-based fuels, chemicals, and materials supply chains providing opportunities for local employment and growth.
• Supporting the transition to more sustainable agriculture, sequestering carbon in soil, and delivering food, feed and energy via policies that reward farmers for implementing best-practices in sustainable, carbon-neutral (or -negative) agriculture and forestry.
• Supporting the shift to a net zero future for hard to abate sectors and essential everyday products used by billions of people.

We recommend that countries consider the following Principles when working to increase the production and use of sustainable biofuels and bio-based chemicals by 2035:

General Guidance

• View sustainable bio-based products and related value chains among the main pillars of de-carbonising aviation, maritime, road transport, heavy industry, household energy, and chemicals, alongside electrification, energy efficiency, and other sustainable fuels.
• Recognise that the role of each bio-based technology will vary over time and vary by country, as a reflection of its own resources, national context, and sustainable development priorities.
• Recognise that sustainable bio-based fuels and chemicals can contribute to systematic solutions to reduce GHG emissions, while generating co-products in the bio- and circular-economy area, recovering/reducing wastes, and utilizing residues.
• Recognise the importance of assessing lifecycle GHG emissions from the road sector for the entire life cycle[2], including raw material extraction, vehicle manufacturing, use and disposal or recycling, to realize a highly decarbonized road sector.

Policy Best Practices

• Design and implement long-term policies that create predictable demand for sustainable fuels, chemicals and materials, to facilitate the investments needed for the widespread deployment of innovative, sustainable bio-based technologies and value chains.
• Implement technology-neutral, feedstock-agnostic, evidence-based policies that enable GHG emissions reductions from aviation, maritime and road transport based on a full Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach that recognizes carbon-negative solutions.
• Advance a business-conducive, evidence-based regulatory framework that rewards GHG emission reductions across aviation, maritime, and road transport, while avoiding explicit or implicit bans on breakthrough emissions reduction technologies.
• Develop public procurement mechanisms to increase demand, as has been done in other sectors like steel and cement.
• Build consensus and improve interoperability in the use of carbon accounting and sustainability standards in policymaking[3], to reduce regulatory burdens, facilitate trade and increase confidence among consumers, policymakers, and investors regarding the benefits of biofuels across different feedstocks, technology platforms, products and regions.
• Empower consumers (B2B and private) to choose low-emissions and circular products, based on transparent product sustainability assessments, and lead the way through public procurement and private buyer initiatives.

Fostering Innovation and an Enabling Environment

• Foster innovation across the bioeconomy to expand biomass feedstock supply through innovation in agricultural markets and value chains such as the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices, such as crop rotations, cover-cropping, inter-cropping, multi-cropping, yield improvements, and crop production on marginal and degraded lands, and to commercialize new technologies that can convert a wider range of feedstocks including agricultural and woody residues into biofuels.
• Foster the productive synergies between biofuels/bio-based chemicals, hydrogen, and carbon capture usage and storage.
• Support capacity-building initiatives and knowledge-sharing platforms to facilitate technology transfer, skills development, and best practices exchange among stakeholders across bio-based industries sector.
• Support value chain collaboration, implementing goal-oriented policies and regulations that bring together partners from the full value-chain (e.g., feedstock through to final products) to accelerate transformative projects at scale.

We stand ready to work with all stakeholders from governments, industries, and civil society to unlock the potential of the sustainable biofuels and bio-based chemicals as the world aims to fulfil its aim stated at COP28 of transitioning away from fossil fuels.

BIOFUTURE INDUSTRY COUNCIL

[1] https://www.iea.org/reports/delivering-sustainable-fuels

[2] E.g., Well-to-wheel

[3] For more information see the “Global Call to Action for Unlocking the Potential of Sustainable Fuels”

The Council’s agreement has introduced a binding intermediate climate target for 2040 of a 90% reduction in net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, compared to 1990 levels. This new target is a crucial step towards the EU’s long-term goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. 

The text of the agreement is available here.

Key highlights:

• There is an open reference to “technological neutrality”  and “sustainable bioenergy”.
• The Commission shall ensure that the following elements are appropriately reflected in the forthcoming legislative proposals: the role of zero-, low-carbon, and renewable fuels in the decarbonisation of transport (including road transport beyond 2030), and concrete measures to assist heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers in meeting their targets, taking into account European content.
• Thus, the agreement reached by the Council acknowledges the inclusion of low-carbon and renewable fuels (which comprises biofuels) in  road transport and the relevance of heavy duty sector in achieving their objectives.

the European Commission is also expected to present soon a proposal for the revision of the CO₂ car regulation, taking into account the above considerations.

Overall, the amendment introduces several areas of flexibility and key elements for the 2040 target and the post-2030 climate framework. These will guide the Commission’s future legislative proposals, enabling member states to meet the 2040 target while supporting European industry and citizens throughout the transition.

The three main areas of flexibility are:

1. High-quality international carbon credits – Member states may use such credits to make an “adequate contribution” towards the 2040 target, quantified as up to 5% of 1990 EU net emissions, with a possible additional 5% after 2030.
2. Domestic permanent carbon removals – Recognised under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to compensate for residual, hard-to-abate emissions.
3. Enhanced flexibility within and across sectors and instruments – Designed to support target attainment in simple and cost-effective ways, allowing member states to address shortfalls in one sector without compromising overall progress.

The Declaration was developed under the auspices of the Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM) Biofuture Platform Initiative, through a dedicated Working Group on Sustainable Chemicals and Materials, initiated by the Netherlands. Ms. Wytske van der Mei (Ministry of Climate and Green Growth) commented: “This milestone comes at a pivotal moment ahead of COP30 and demonstrates the value of strong international collaboration. It represents a vital step for the global transition and for advancing a climate-neutral, circular industry in the Netherlands and beyond. We look forward to further deepening this cooperation and translating these shared ambitions into concrete results”. The Declaration has been endorsed by all Biofuture Platform member countries, with the exception of the United States, and represents a major output under the Biofuture Platform Action Plan 2025–2027 and the broader CEM Future Fuels Action Plan.

The launch took place during the CEM Future Fuels High-Level Roundtable at the Sustainable Business COP30 in São Paulo, co-hosted by the Clean Energy Ministerial, Brazil’s COP30 Presidency, and Sustainable Business COP30. The event brought together ministers, senior officials, and business leaders from around the world to discuss practical pathways for implementing COP30 outcomes on sustainable fuels and materials.

The Declaration outlines a shared international vision to foster the use of bio-based, recycled, and captured carbon feedstocks, while encouraging innovation, policy alignment, and investment to create resilient and sustainable global supply chains. It recognises that conventional decarbonisation measures alone are insufficient for the chemical sector, where carbon is a fundamental input, and calls for international collaboration to build a competitive global market for sustainable materials. The Biofuture Industry Council, which brings together Industry leaders from across the sustainable chemicals value chain, issued a letter to express its support for the Declaration and for ambitious policies and actions to rapidly increase the production and use of sustainable chemicals and materials.

The Chair of the CEM Biofuture Platform Initiative (Prof. David Chiaramonti of the Politecnico di Torino, Italy) commented: “This Declaration is the result of the consultation carried out among all Platform’s members, and is one of the first outcomes of the new Action Plan of the Platform. The future role of Biochemicals and Biomaterials in the Bioeconomy is relevant, and it requires to be regulated in the different contexts and to be developed at scale, ensuring the most GHG performing and sustainable solutions are promoted”.

About the Biofuture Platform Declaration

The Declaration sets out principles for joint action in four priority areas:

• Policy and regulatory alignment, to promote clear and consistent frameworks for sustainable carbon feedstocks.

• Technology development and scale-up, fostering innovation and technology transfer across participating countries.

• Sustainable supply chain creation, promoting the development of sustainable sources of carbon for the chemical industry, and enhancing transparency and traceability in supply chains.

• Market development and demand stimulation, aligning product standards and certification schemes to promote global trade in sustainable materials.

The Declaration also emphasizes collaboration with existing initiatives such as the Integrated Biorefineries Mission under Mission Innovation, and establishes a Coordination Committee to monitor progress and facilitate dialogue among participants.

Background

The CEM Future Fuels Action Plan, launched at CEM15, brings together governments and industry to accelerate deployment of sustainable fuels and materials through three pillars: Demand Creation, Lifecycle Carbon Accounting, and Markets and Infrastructure. The Biofuture Platform Declaration represents one of the key deliverables under this Action Plan, bridging the chemical and fuels sectors toward a low-carbon, circular economy.

Download the Biofuture Platform Declaration on Sustainable Chemicals and Materials

The initiative, which was unveiled during a pre-COP30 event that took place in Brasília on 14 October 2025, aims to accelerate the transition toward a low-carbon global energy system.

Brazil’s proposal has already gained the support of Italy, Japan and India, the first partner nations to endorse the commitment. Discussions are now underway to expand participation ahead of COP30, which will take place from 10 to 21 November 2025 in Belém, Pará (Brazil).

The Belém 4× pledge is grounded in the new IEA report “Delivering Sustainable Fuels – Pathways to 2035”, which shows that a four-fold increase in the deployment of sustainable fuels is technically achievable and economically viable under an accelerated transition scenario.

According to the IEA, global production of sustainable fuels could rise from roughly 6.8 exajoules in 2024 to 27.5 EJ by 2035. The largest growth is expected from hydrogen-based and synthetic fuels, particularly in aviation, shipping, and heavy industry.

For Brazil and its partners, Belém 4× represents a coordinated effort to mobilize political will, international cooperation, private investment and harmonized regulation to make sustainable fuels a core pillar of global decarbonization.

The Biofuture Platform and its associated entity Biofuture Industry Council supported and reviewed the aforementioned IEA report, assisted the member countries that have joined the pledge, and contributed to relevant discussions on sustainable fuels at key recent events, including the 16^th Clean Energy Ministerial Meeting (Busan, South Korea, 25-27 August 2025), the Expo 2025 (Osaka, Japan), the Climate Week (New York, USA, 21-28 September 2025) and the pre-COP30 meeting (Brasília, Brazil, 14 October 2025).

Read the press release on the Brazilian Foreign Ministry website

Demand for sustainable biofuels such as ethanol, biodiesel, renewable diesel, sustainable aviation fuel, and biomethane, is set to expand by 2030, but remains below levels required to meet ambitious emissions reduction goals. Accelerated deployment depends on achieving a global vision for sustainable fuels, innovation to expand production potential, and effective policies to close the cost gap supported by transparent and science-based carbon accounting.

Sustainable fuels and carbon accounting were both prominently featured last year on Brazil’s G20 action agenda, culminating on a High-Level Dialogue on “Performance-based Sustainability Assessments and Frameworks”, supported by the 2024 IEA’s report “Carbon Accounting for Sustainable Biofuels”. Sustainable biofuels and carbon accounting will also continue to be part of this year’s COP30 Presidency’s cross-sectoral agenda.

To build upon and complement these efforts, the IEA and the Biofuture Platform Initiative have organized a side event on “Creating Demand for Sustainable Biofuels” within the CEM16/MI-10, which will take place in Busan, Korea, from 25 to 27 August, alongside the APEC Energy Ministerial Meeting and the World Climate Industry Expo 2025.

The IEA and Biofuture Platform Initiative are hosting this event with the aim of elaborating on the priorities identified at the G20 meeting and the IEA April workshop on sustainable fuels:

• Recognising the critical role of creating public procurement programmes.
• Need to expand trade.
• Support biofuel innovation.
• Strengthening international collaboration on carbon accounting.

The objective of the event, which will be held on Monday 25 August (11-12 local time), is to serve as a key milestone on the road to COP30, helping build momentum for high-level recognition of the importance of sustainable fuels.

In this context, the Italian Minister for the Environment and Energy Security (MASE), Gilberto Pichetto-Fratin, stated: “Italy wishes to thank the International Energy Agency (IEA) for acting as Facilitator of the Platform,and all Member Countries for having supported the candidacy of Italy as Chair of the CEM Biofuture Platform Initiative. Built on the excellent previous mandates of the United States and Brazil, we are at a unique moment to promote policies and initiatives that must further promote the use of sustainable biofuels as an effective and strategic solution in all sectors, including those that are difficult to abate and transport, including road transport; and to address global sectoral challenges and promote a safe and sustainable energy transition through a concrete and non-ideological approach”.

“Italy is committed to chair the CEM Biofuture Platform from 2025 to 2027, in close collaboration with all Members and Vice-Chairs, to further develop the biofuels component within the global agenda on sustainable fuels and future fuels, in particular in the context of the CEM, the COP and the G20; working together to promote the key role of sustainable bio-based solutions and biofuels at global level, also enhancing international excellences both at industrial and research level, building consensus on the basis of scientific evidence. Italy will do its utmost to explore the opportunities for the development of sustainable biomass supply chains and stimulate private sector investments towards objectives for a Net Zero and Net Negative future”.

The chairmanship of the Biofuture Platform has been assigned to Prof David Chiaramonti, from Politecnico di Torino, who commented: “We express our sincere gratitude to Dr Jim Spaeth, for the guidance during the former US leadership. It is an honour for us to take this role: we will do our best to continue the work done by the former chairs Brazil and US, aiming at fostering sustainable biomass industrial deployment, in collaboration with the Vice-Chairs from Brazil and The Netherlands”.

Prof Stefano Corgnati, Rector of Politecnico di Torino, also remarked the following: “It is a mission and commitment of Politecnico di Torino towards Italian and EU/International Institutions to facilitate the green transition towards Net Zero, supporting policy making and providing guidance to ensure an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable path. We are proud to support MASE in leading such impressive number of Countries driving the green change”.

According to the International Energy Agency, the Biofuture Platform’s Facilitator, modern sustainable bioenergy makes up more than half of total renewable energy supply today. While it is set to expand by 20% in absolute terms by 2030 under current policies and market contexts, this growth would need to significantly accelerate in order to achieve world’s long-term energy and climate targets.

Dr Paolo Frankl (IEA), Head of the Biofuture Platform Facilitation Team, commented: “Sustainable bioenergy is the ‘hidden giant’ of renewable energy, bringing multiple benefits such as strengthening energy security and diversification, supporting rural economic development and reducing emissions. International collaboration is a key element in order to unlock its vast remaining potential, through stronger policies supporting innovation and attracting investment. The IEA will be honoured to continue to support the Biofuture Platform in achieving its ambitious objectives under the new leadership of Italy, Brazil and The Netherlands.”

• CEM Biofuture-KDF is compiled to present a global data set from reports received to date
  from contributing countries based on the most recent (ranging from 2000 to 2024),
  citable sources for current biomass production potentials, as well as potential additional
  future production for nations where projected supplies are reported.
• The MI BiCRS data set is tailor-made with the objective of producing unified information
  on biomass resources amongst the eight member countries, based on the most recently
  available national data, to meet an outcome of MI CDR. This was necessary to secure a
  consistent data set.
• Different definitions of sub-categories in the two data sets were found for both the UK
  and USA.
• Uncertainty about what the data represent in the CEM Biofuture-KDF, as this depends on
  the source reports which sometimes identify a maximum estimated biomass volume,
  whereas other sources report available biomass under a set of defined technical,
  economic and environmental constraints.
• The CEM Biofuture-KDF data collection process continues, with updates and additions as
  new reports are submitted for inclusion in the data set. Some reports such as those for
  the UK, were based on earlier studies and included “projections to 2020” which
  represented estimates of what could have been available if biomass market demand had
  developed. This is distinct from the Mi BiCRS data set which requested each nation to
  report in a consistent manner on the actual biomass data for that year.
  The first three points are believed to be generally valid when comparing and/or using
  different databases for estimation of biomass available for bioenergy and/or Carbon Dioxide
  Removal (CDR). Data assessment for bioresources will often be adapted to national and
  international reporting requirements and guidelines, as well as to the applications.

With these reflections in mind, it is likely that the two data sets will complement each other:

• CEM Biofuture-KDF gives a first order estimate of available resources in several countries
• The BiCRS approach will give consistent and comparable estimates between countries
  and clarity with respect to biomass resources that are available for carbon dioxide
  removal and/or GHG emissions reductions.

Download the document: Technical Track on Biomass Carbon Removal
and Storage (BiCRS)