Facilitating / NUTS2 values

At the request of the German Farmers' Association, the Thünen Institute has presented an evaluation of the proportion of organic soils in the total cultivated area in the 17 German NUTS2 areas (see table), for which the EU Commission has approved different emission values ​​for biomass from mineral and organic soils.

_{Table: Overview of the percentage of organic soils in the cultivated area in 17 NUTS2 regions}

With these values, a fist gathering point can now book the corresponding share of biomass from one of the affected NUTS2 areas in its mass balance with the GHG emission value for organic soils (usually the disaggregated default value according to the revised RED II is used here) and book the vast majority with the significantly better GHG emission value for mineral soils. For this purpose, he does NOT need any separate evidence from the producer, e.g. by designating the soil type under point 6 of the extended self-declaration. 

The 2023 data used here are the same as those used for the calculation of the German NUTS2 values recognised by the EU Commission for 5 years with effect from 4 November 2024. So they should last until the 2029 harvest included. 

Example of application: 

A first gathering point in Schleswig-Holstein collects 1,000 tonnes of rapeseed from farmers from NUTS2 area DEF0 ‘Schleswig-Holstein’ , who have submitted a valid self-declaration in the 2026 harvest. With the help of the flat rate value (see table), he can now book in his mass balance as follows: 

     1,000 t x 3.8% = 38 t of organic soil  → NUTS2-value_org 1,669 kg CO2eq / t rapeseed
                                          or alternatively*    ‘Disaggregated default value for e_ec’

     1,000 t x 96.1% = 962 t of mineral soil  → NUTS2-value_org404.7 kg CO2 eq/t rapeseed

*Deviating or simplified references to Annex V or VI to the revised Directive (EU) 2018/2001 are possible.

In practice, the flat-rate value for organic soil biomass is likely to be slightly higher than the actual acreage of organic soil biomass for biofuels and fuels. This is the ‘price’ for a much-simplified application practice. A first gathering point is therefore free to require his producers to provide specific evidence of the actual types of soil in his area of cultivation, which must then also be verified in the context of the farmer's audits. 

Until further notice, the identifier for organic soils is “GLÖZ 2”, which is listed in the inventories under the direct payment procedures and confirmed by the BLE in November 2024. With the help of the well-known FLIK search (https://flik-suche.de ), we will soon offer a further detection option for areas on organic soils and inform you about this separately.