The Open Market Committee (OMC)

The 'Open Markets Committee' (OMC) took place in Vienna, Austria on 30 November 2017.

The OMC is the annual meeting between the Issuing Bodies, being members and observers of AIB and the guarantee of origin (GO) market participants and their representative association, RECS International. The OMC is an important meeting point where AIB and its members – the competent bodies for guarantees of origin across Europe – and market participants can develop a better understanding of each other’s needs and wishes. This year's agenda was again full of interesting topics:

• Identifying and eliminating barriers to trade and use of GOs in Europe, and the need for further standardisation;
• What is the state of play of the proposals regarding GOs in RED II (the Clean Energy Package)? While in general the Package recognises the value of the GO and wants to strengthen and expand its role, some ideas need to be thought through: GOs for supported production, lifespan of the GO, how to achieve additionality … without harming consumer choice and empowerment!
• What is the market participants’ opinion on the current communication methods? What new facilities would GO traders like to see? And what potential improvements to GO systems is AIB investigating?
• And then some other things: ISO treatment of Scope 2 accounting; biomethane and hydrogen GOs; other certification schemes (I-REC, TIGR, Green-e …); further AIB improvements of statistics and the Hub …

Agenda Open Market Committee November 2017

• Welcoming and Opening (Dirk van Evercooren, AIB President)
• Eliminating barriers in Europe (Tom Lindberg, ECOHZ and Jared Braslawsky, RECS International)
• Developments about RED II
  AIB: Laura Plunkett
  RECS: Jared Braslawsky
• Market Mechanisms
  AIB: Annie Desaulniers
  RECS: William Dixon
• Update on other matters
  AIB: Statistics, Other energies, GO CO2, Geographic Scope (Laura Plunkett, Phil Moody, Annie Desaulniers)
  RECS: International tracking standards, infrastructure, labelling and consumer claim standards (Jared Braslawsky)