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Pierre-Franck Chevet
Chairman and CEO of IFP Energies Nouvelles
EUBCE Conference General Chair

Pierre-Franck Chevet was appointed Chairman and CEO of IFP Energies Nouvelles in June 2020.
Prior to this, he was Chairman of the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) from 2012 to 2018. From 2007 to 2012, he was Director General for Energy and Climate in the French Ministry for Energy and in 2005 he was head of the Industry, Energy, Environment and Innovation cluster at the Prime Minister’s cabinet. From 1995 to 2005, he was Director of the DRIRE of the Alsace region (Regional Directorate for Industry, Research and the Environment), then Director of the DRIRE of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region and Director of the École des Mines de Douai. He began his career in 1986 at the ASN. He graduated from the École Polytechnique and ENSAE.

version française

It is a great honor for me to chair this 30th edition of the European biomass conference EUBCE.

Once again organized by videoconference, the conference is structured around six major themes covering sustainable uses of biomass, including conversion into biobased products, bioenergy production, conversion into chemical intermediates and biofuels. All these themes illustrate how biomass is a key element of the ecological transition.

However, many challenges remain to be overcome to develop the sectors exploiting this renewable resource, whether coming from agricultural or forestry origin, or derived from green waste or industrial by-products. A transversal reflection is then necessary to optimize production, collect and recovery for all the economic sectors concerned. This reflection leads us to rethink our agricultural systems (agroforestry, development of plant cover, diversification of rotations, etc.), the use of residues or dedicated crops. A more systematic and integrated management of our forests should also lead to a better control of reforestation, growth ,end of life and their exploitation costs.

Another important lever will come from public policies that must encourage, at all levels, the development of biomass by providing a framework adapted to the development of technologies and industrial sectors, contributing to building a strong bioeconomy. In this context, this bioeconomy also offers a real opportunity to generate innovation, strengthen the competitiveness of the European industry while providing sustainable solutions to the environmental and societal challenges our society is facing today. It will also contribute to increasing the energy sovereignty of Europe, whose strong dependency on imported fossil energy resources has been highlighted by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. The EUBCE community must therefore mobilize to change the regulations so that the biomass contribution be better accounted for in the European Union’s “Fitfor55” roadmap.

Biofuels are a good example of a sector that while using local raw materials is source of employment. Quite obviously, it appears necessary to develop this sector by supplementing the current supply of first generation biofuels produced from resources that compete with food use (vegetable oil, beet, corn, wheat, sugar cane, etc.) with an offer of advanced biofuels produced from waste (wood, straw, industrial, urban or household organic by-products, energy crops on wasteland and polluted soil, etc.). The European regulation RED II, and its revised version proposed by the Commission, envisages an increasing contribution of advanced biofuels to the transport sector, rising from 0.2% in 2022 to 2.2% in 2030 and providing an immediate solution to the decarbonization of the aviation sector.

The next four days offer you a unique opportunity to discuss the most significant advances made in each of the areas of this conference dedicated to biomass. I wish you rich and lively and fruitful discussions that will undoubtedly feed the reflections to come so that bioeconomy contributes effectively to a successful ecological transition.

Pierre-Franck Chevet
Chairman and CEO of IFP Energies Nouvelles
EUBCE Conference General Chair

Message du Président Général de la Conférence EUBCE, Pierre-Franck Chevet