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The study carried out within the Bioenergy Network of Excellence analyses the implementation of important EU directives and policies relating to bioenergy in Europe to identify major RD&D needs in the field. Major EU directives, commonly known as the Promotion of Renewable Electricity, Biofuels and Landfill Directives, along with the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and parts of the Common Agricultural Policy, are some of the most important drivers behind the growth of bioenergy in the EU27 today. The report compares how Germany, Finland and the Netherlands have implemented the directives, examining the policy frameworks in each country and the plans and mechanisms in place to reach national targets. A wider European perspective for each directive is then drawn out, and recommendations for RD&D actions to meet the EU directive targets or obligations in each area are outlined. The report also takes a broader look at the effects the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the Common Agricultural Policy are having on the use of biomass in the EU with RD&D recommendations for each area. Bioenergy NoE advocates stronger communication and co-operation among various EU-wide projects and initiatives focusing on bioenergy development. Industry commitment to RD&D projects is, however, the only direct path for bringing state-of-the-art technology and products to market. Building sustainable production pathways and addressing competition with food products is crucial to developing environmentally-sound biofuels. Research in renewable electricity from biomass should prioritize development of higher efficiency power production and power-to-heat ratios in combined heat and power plants over new technology development. In the biofuels field, RD&D should prioritize the development of more sustainable, second generation biofuels. To meet landfill diversion targets, thermal conversion and energy recovery of municipal solid waste in some EU countries will have to increase. Meeting the European targets set for 2020 requires significant technology development in order to introduce a new generation of biofuels and feedstocks: this is the focus for Bioenergy NoE RD&D.

VTT Research Notes Series no. 2441; The study carried out within the Bioenergy Network of Excellence analyzes the implementation of important EU directives and policies relating to bioenergy in Europe to identify major RD&D needs in the field. Major EU directives, commonly known as the Promotion of Renewable Electricity, Biofuels and Landfill Directives, along with the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and parts of the Common Agricultural Policy, are some of the most important drivers behind the growth of bioenergy in the EU27 today. The report compares how Germany, Finland and the Netherlands have implemented the directives, examining the policy frameworks in each country and the plans and mechanisms in place to reach national targets. A wider European perspective for each directive is then drawn out, and recommendations for RD&D actions to meet the EU directive targets or obligations in each area are outlined. The report also takes a broader look at the effects the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the Common Agricultural Policy are having on the use of biomass in the EU with RD&D recommendations for each area. Bioenergy NoE advocates stronger communication and cooperation among various EUwide projects and initiatives focusing on bioenergy development. Industry commitment to RD&D projects is, however, the only direct path for bringing stateoftheart technology and products to market. Building sustainable production pathways and addressing competition with food products is crucial to developing environmentallysound biofuels. Research in renewable electricity from biomass should prioritize development of higher efficiency power production and powertoheat ratios in combined heat and power plants over new technology development. In the biofuels field, RD&D should prioritize the development of more sustainable, second generation biofuels. To meet landfill diversion targets, thermal conversion and energy recovery of municipal solid waste in some EU countries will have to increase. Meeting the European targets set for 2020 requires significant technology development in order to introduce a new generation of biofuels and feedstocks: this is the focus for Bioenergy NoE RD&D.

Forests will have to adapt to the changing climate and so should forestry itself. Modernization of forest management in Croatia, primarily within the Croatian Forests Ltd. was in certain segments, such as implementation of a centralized database and GIS applications, very successful. However, some other segments, like preparation for the implementation of the KP, and research of the carbon sequestration potential of forests in Croatia, were considered outside of the scope of 'classical' forestry and therefore have been neglected. This should be changed. Forest policymakers and scientists involved in forest research should attempt to bridge the knowledge gap. We believe that the participation of the Forest Research Institute, Jastrebarsko in the Carbon-Pro Project has been a step in the right direction. The next steps should address concrete current issues and future research directions. One current issue is the establishment of a national reporting system for the LULUCF with an assessment of research needs and a proposed action plan. We believe that the bottom-up approach would prove most suitable. The main idea, from a technical point of view, is to add carbon balance information to the level of forest compartment and then to upscale to a national level. Of course, this would require data on soil and other missing pools. We believe that this should be addressed with a step-by-step scientific approach that would facilitate available substitute data from literature and appropriate models on one hand, while elaborating on country specific data and model parameters on the other. This approach eventually would enable Croatia to participate in building an accurate accounting system for carbon stocks and fluxes to be shared with, accepted by, and applied to all countries.