Sasol Climate Change Report 2023 - Book - Page 44
INTRODUCTION
TRANSFORMING FOR RESILIENCE
GOVERNANCE
CLIMATE ADVOCACY AND POLICY
DATA AND ASSURANCE
SUSTAINABILITY CERTIFICATION
To ensure that we can produce sustainable products, a rigorous sustainability certification process needs to be in place, verified by accredited bodies.
Sustainability certification will allow us to validate
our product claims and meet market or customer
requirements. Certification requirements differ
according to market and customer needs. Some
markets, including the European Union, have
mandated sustainability requirements to ensure
compliance with performance or environmental
targets, such as those stipulated in the European
Union RED II (see alongside). Other markets or
customers use certified products to make credible
voluntary sustainability claims.
We are working with globally recognised sustainability
certification bodies to understand sustainability
impacts and certify our feedstocks and products.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB)
is conducting sustainability assessments for some
of our green hydrogen projects to understand market
access requirements under recognised standards.
We have undertaken gap analyses between where
we are today and where we have to be to certify
our sustainable products. We aim to certify our first
volumes of renewable hydrogen from the Sasolburg
green hydrogen pilot project in 2024. Our ambition
is to integrate larger quantities of bio-based and
circular raw materials into our Eurasian operations.
This is being realised by certifying our bio-ethylene
under ISCC PLUS. This year, we successfully
completed an ISCC PLUS surveillance audit, which
recognises the continued sustainability of our
feedstocks and products.
In 2022, we joined the RSB member programme to
expand our knowledge base and contribute to the
development of related policy such as the RSB Global
Advanced Fuels standard. We have also participated
in the public consultation process for the DAs to
Articles 27 and 28 of the European Union9s RED II
(see 2023 CAPS ) and continue to engage with
appropriate stakeholders to ensure that sustainability
certification standards do not inadvertently
disadvantage brownfields facilities in South Africa.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION RED II FOR SOUTH AFRICA //
A key policy defining the European Union’s eligibility criteria for green hydrogen and SAF (so-called Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin
or RFNBOs) is the RED II and its associated Delegated Acts (DAs), specifically DA281, which provides detail on carbon source eligibility and GHG
accounting rules for RFNBO production.
DA28, in its current form, imposes criteria that
challenge the economic viability of incrementally
transitioning FT processes. The major hurdle in
DA28 is related to the use of a conventional
attributional approach for co-processing
sustainable and fossil feedstocks, where the
benefits of sustainable inputs must be allocated
proportionally across all products (see [A] below).
Current European Union rules do not recognise the
incremental introduction of sustainable feedstocks,
which severely dilutes the quantities of RFNBOs
that can be produced in existing and transitioning
FT facilities. This limits revenue that could be
generated to offset high production costs 3 which
can thereafter be channelled to further decarbonise
these facilities.
The challenge is that the Sasol FT process produces
a multitude of chemicals and fuels. Sustainable
inputs (eg sustainable carbon and green hydrogen)
must be incrementally introduced into existing FT
processes to allow for an economically viable
phase-out of fossil-based feed, while supporting a
just and equitable transition.
Sasol has consistently submitted that international
RFNBO policies should adopt a flexible attributional
approach (see [B] below), particularly to support
developing countries undertaking a just transition
(see page 65 and 2023 CAPS ). This approach is
supported by global sustainability certification
bodies such as the RSB and ISCC. Through this
[A] PROPORTIONAL ALLOCATION
Conventional
inputs
FT processes are among a few viable pathways
to achieve commercial-scale RFNBO production.
Sasol9s Secunda Operations is commercially and
technically ready to produce SAF for the European
Union market, at scale. Policies such as the
European Union RED II should make it possible for
existing FT facilities to produce RFNBOs through
flexible allocation. Such an approach could lead to
investment in new-build, higher-SAF yielding FT
processes and accelerate the transition of existing
fossil-based brownfields FT units to sustainable
facilities in developing countries.
[B] FLEXIBLE ALLOCATION
Gasoline
Conventional
inputs
Jet fuel
Gasoline
Jet fuel
Sustainable inputs
1. The DA pursuant to article 28 of RED II is given the short-hand DA28.
SASOL CLIMATE CHANGE REPORT 2023
approach, incremental sustainable inputs can
be allocated to select and intended co-products,
maximising product volumes to offset high
production costs.
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