Virtual General Assembly 2020
On account of Corona, this year’s TBE General Assembly (Tiles and Bricks Europe) was held as a virtual event at the end of September 2020. Miroslaw Jaroszewicz was re-elected President for the term from 2020 to 2023. New Vice-President is Murray Rattana-Ngam, Managing Director at Ziegelwerk Bellenberg and Chairman of the Board for the Institute of Brick and Tile Research (IZF), Essen.
In 2019-2020, the main challenges were connected with the climate and energy policies and the preparation for the implementation of the Emissions Trading System ETS phase 4, which is going to start in 2021. The most crucial currently is the forthcoming benchmarking review. The European Commission is planning to review the ETS benchmark values, which will also concern the three product benchmarks in brick and tile industry (facing bricks, pavers and roofing tiles benchmark). Many products are allocated via the so called fallback benchmark – fuel benchmark (for example: clay blocks). According to the initial estimations the highest possible update rate will be applied to these benchmarks (-24 %). That is why TBE is putting all its efforts into preventing such a drastic cut of the benchmark values, said TBE-President Jaroszewicz. One of the reasons why the European Commission (EC) is applying such a high rate is the inclusion of the biomass-using installations in their calculations. Mr Jaroszewicz: “According to our view, it should be avoided, due to the fact that the biomass is not available everywhere to the same extent and that it cannot be treated as a representative energy source.” The decision on the benchmarking review will come at the end of 2020.
The positive news for TBE comes from the standardization field and the fact that the new amended EN 15804 standard has been published by CEN early 2020. The TBE has revised the TBE Product Category Rules (PCR) for Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and the internal guidance document to TBE members. They are available now for your use.
The upcoming challenges in 2020-2021 are connected again with the ambitious climate and energy policy field and the new proposals which are being discussed by the EC. One of the new promises by the legislators is an introduction of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. “We will stay close to the debate on this proposal to make sure it does not harm our industry,” said the TBE-President.
Save the date
The next TBE Congress will take place on 17. and 18. June 2021 in Berlin, Germany.
