Placing of renewable or low-emission thermal and motor fuels on the market

With the revision of the CO2 Act adopted by Parliament on 15 March 2024, Article 35d of the Environmental Protection Act (EPA) was also revised. It is now prohibited to place on the market renewable fuels that are produced from food or animal feed, as well as fuels that directly compete with food production. Moreover, there must be compliance with ecological requirements. The revised article also permits the Federal Council to set environmental requirements for low-emission fuels.

The Ordinance on the Placing on the Market of Renewable and Low-Emission Thermal and Motor Fuels (RFO) specifies the requirements for the sale of these types of fuel; oversight lies with the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). The provisions require that authorisation be obtained from the FOEN before placing renewable or low-emission thermal and motor fuels on the market (e.g. before importing them).At the same time, the Mineral Oil Tax Act (MinOTA) provides for tax relief for renewable fuels, provided that ecological and social requirements are met. The decision on tax relief is the responsibility of the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (BAZG). It is in charge of the application procedure and decides on tax relief in agreement with the FOEN and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO). Within the application procedure, the FOEN is responsible for checking whether the ecological requirements are met.

At the same time, there is still tax relief for renewable fuels under the Mineral Oil Tax Act (MinOTA), subject to ecological and social requirements. The Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (FOCBS) is responsible for the tax relief, while the FOEN is responsible for ensuring the environmental requirements and the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) for ensuring the social requirements.

The ecological requirements for placing fuels on the market in accordance with Article 35d EPA and for granting tax relief in accordance with Article 12b MinOTA are as far as possible identical. The granting of tax relief by the FOCBS automatically results in the FOEN granting authorisation to place such fuels on the market. Conversely, if authorisation is obtained to place fuels on the market, this does not automatically result in tax relief being granted, as this is subject to additional requirements and tax relief is only granted for motor fuels, not for thermal fuels.

The ecological requirements in the context of placing fuels on the market consist of three criteria that relate to the entire life cycle of the thermal or motor fuels:

The greenhouse gas emissions caused by renewable or low-emission thermal or motor fuels must be at least 40% less than those produced by conventional fossil thermal or motor fuels ;
The environmental impact must not be significantly greater than that of the conventional fossil thermal or motor fuel; and
The cultivation of raw materials must not involve a change in the use of areas with high carbon stocks (in particular forests, peat bogs, wetlands) or high biodiversity (in particular protected areas).

The FOEN checks whether the ecological requirements are met on the basis of the information provided by the applicant, assessing the balance of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impact caused by the production of the renewable or low-emission thermal and motor fuels. It does this on the basis of datasets from the Federal Administration's eco-inventory database, supplemented with data from the ecoinvent v2.2 database or from eco-inventory databases of comparable quality, and the ecological scarcity method or other methods of comparable quality.

The Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications (DETEC) has regulated the details in two ordinances.

For the implementation of the tax relief for renewable fuels in the Ordinance on Proof of Compliance with the Ecological Requirements for Biogenic Fuels
For the implementation of the placing of fuels on the market in the Ordinance on the Placing on the Market of Renewable and Low-Emission Thermal and Motor Fuels

the Ordinance on Proof of Compliance with the Ecological Requirements for Renewable Fuels.

Applying to place fuels on the market

If a renewable fuel is authorised by the FOCBS for tax relief in accordance with the MinOTA, the requirements for placing it on the market are met and authorisation is automatically issued by the FOEN. There is no tax relief on thermal fuels (fuels for generating heat).

Authorisation must be obtained from the FOEN before a renewable/low-emission thermal fuel or a renewable/low-emission motor fuel not eligible for tax relief is placed on the market. The details are regulated in the RFO. The options are as follows:

Individual application with the necessary documents (Art. 4 and Annex 2 RFO)
Application to place on the market a renewable thermal or motor fuel which is produced from biogenic waste or production residues listed on the FOCBS positive list and produced according to the state of the art (simplified procedure).
Application to place on the market a mass-balanced renewable or low-emission thermal or motor fuel for which a valid certificate and accompanying documentation in accordance with Annex 1 RFO are available (Art. 3 para. 5 let.)

Applying for tax relief

Domestic manufacturers and importers of renewable fuels can submit an application for tax relief under the MinOTA to the FOCBS. The official forms can be found on the FOCBS website.

These must be completed with information on the type and quality of the renewable fuels, the areas used for cultivation and the entire production path of the fuels, from the cultivation of the raw materials to the receipt of the fuels by consumers. This is to provide proof of compliance with the ecological requirements. This information must be clear and verifiable.

Federal Office for Customs and Border Security FOCBS: Renewable fuel

State Secretaiat for Economic Affairs SECO: Social criteria (in German)