PEFC General Assembly Greenlights RED III Standards

12 May 2025 PEFC system news

In a significant move towards RED III (Renewable Energy Directive), PEFC has been working on the development of the PEFC RED III standards; these standards were approved by the PEFC General Assembly on 8 May 2025.

The vote in the PEFC General Assembly is a final step in the PEFC standard-setting process, which adheres to robust and stringent requirements in a participatory and inclusive way. The approval of the new standards by the highest PEFC decision-making body adds significant weight to the new PEFC RED III certification scheme, which has already received a positive technical assessment from the European Commission (EC) in April 2025.

These new standards will enable PEFC chain of custody certified organisations seeking RED III compliance to obtain a PEFC RED III certificate and use the PEFC certification scheme to demonstrate that the forest biomass they use meets the relevant RED III sustainability criteria.

Organisations that are not yet PEFC chain of custody certified and wish to use the PEFC RED III tool as evidence to meet their RED III obligations will be able to obtain a PEFC chain of custody certificate and a PEFC RED III certificate at the same time.

PEFC RED III certification is available for economic operators worldwide. It covers forest biomass, ligno-cellulosic material derived from processing residues originating in forest-related industries, waste, and biomass fuels produced from ligno-cellulosic material for heating, cooling, and electricity production. It also covers GHG saving calculations and declarations, both for default and actual values, conducted by forest biomass-based power plant producers at the end of the supply chain.

The PEFC RED III certification documentation

PEFC RED III certification is the revision of the PEFC RED II certification; thus, economic operators can demonstrate their compliance with RED III requirements. Similar to the PEFC RED II certification scheme, the PEFC RED III certification scheme is built upon the PEFC chain of custody scheme, providing interpretations and additional requirements to the existing chain of custody standard.

It also includes interpretations and additional requirements for chain of custody notified certification bodies and other technical requirements necessary to ensure the integrity, harmonised implementation, and consistency of the scheme.

RED III and the transition from RED II to RED III

RED III, the European Union’s (EU) Renewable Energy Directive 2023/2413, is the successor to the EU Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001 (RED II Directive). RED III raises the overall target for the renewable energy shares and strengthens the sustainability criteria set out for biomass.

RED III also tightens the requirements for data reporting throughout the supply chain and ensures the setup of the Union Database at the Commission level to collect data from organisations via recognised voluntary schemes.

Under RED III, the European Commission (EC) reassesses RED III documentation of the recognised voluntary certification schemes as compliant with the rules and requirements in RED III to help verify that the production of fuels and energy from forest biomass complies with the EU sustainability criteria as well as relevant methodologies.

By getting approval from the EC on the scheme’s RED III documentation, the recognised voluntary scheme can maintain its recognition and align with the transition between RED II and RED III.