Platts proposes to launch UK Renewable Transport Fuel Certificate assessments

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, proposes to launch daily assessments for UK Renewable Transport Fuel Certificates (RTFC) on Jan. 6, 2025.

These new assessments would follow the launch of German greenhouse gas quota (THG) price assessments in November 2024 and the Netherlands renewable energy units (HBE) price assessments in January 2024, reflecting the growing importance of the relevant tickets markets in determining biofuels prices in Europe.

Following a consultation period (subscriber note found here),Platts proposes to assess two different types of RTFCs:

• Crop RTFC
• Non-crop RTFC

As defined under UK RTFO Order 2007 No. 3072 and the UK Department for Transport:

• Crop RTFC: One RTFC is issued per liter of liquid biofuel derived from crop-based feedstocks with single counting properties
• Non-crop RTFC: Twice the number of RTFCs per liter are issued generated through biofuels produced from feedstocks with double counting properties such as wastes, non-agricultural residues, non-food cellulosic material, and ligno-cellulosic material

The assessments would be published daily at 4:30 pm London time market close in pence per certificate, following the London publishing calendar.

Platts would assess a previous year vintage from the start of January until the last working day of April; a current year vintage from the first to the last working day of the calendar year, and a next year vintage from the start of November to the last working day of the calendar year. Therefore, in 2025, Platts would publish current year RTFCs from January through December, previous year RTFCs from Jan. 6 until April 30, and year-ahead RTFCs in November and December.

The assessments would reflect first-quarter of the year transfer and payment terms in line with market practice. Pricing information reflecting other terms may be considered and normalized to the specification. The assessments would reflect market activity ranging from 1 million to 10 million RTFCs. Volumes outside of these parameters may be considered and normalized to the basis level.

Please submit any feedback, comments, or questions to mrts_biofuelsandfeedstocks@spglobal.com and pricegroup@spglobal.com by Nov. 15, 2024. For written comments, please provide a clear indication if comments are not intended for publication by Platts for public viewing. Platts will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.