Course 04 of 20 · Biofuels and SAF Desk Academy

Mandates, Incentives & Regional Markets

Stage A, Market foundations. Level 2 of 10.

How obligation and incentive schemes are constructed in general form and how regional schemes differ in design, without asserting any scheme's current settings.

129 chapters · 12 modules · every chapter one 8 to 10 minute explainer · builds on: Course 01, Course 03

Enrol or enquire See the 129 chapters
How a chapter is delivered

One chapter is one idea taken to the point of use

Each chapter covers one idea to the point where you can use it, and comes two ways: a narrated explainer, and a deep dive audio discussion of around thirty minutes that works the same material at depth.

Self-paced throughout, and the same chapters can be taught as a cohort. Chapters run in order: each one assumes only what the chapters before it taught, and capability belonging to a later course is named and deferred rather than half-covered.

Curriculum

12 modules · 129 chapters

Open any module for its full chapter list, in teaching order.

M0 What a Fuels Obligation Actually Is Ch 1-10
  1. An Obligation Creates the Demand
  2. Mandate and Incentive Are Not the Same Instrument
  3. The Five Choices Every Fuels Obligation Rests On
  4. Why This Material Teaches No Current Settings
  5. Where the Current Number Actually Lives
  6. Whose Seat This Material Sits In
  7. Policy as a Supply and Demand Instrument
  8. Physical Blending Against Paper Compliance
  9. Obligation Schemes Are Not Carbon Markets
  10. How the Material Is Built
M1 The Obligated Party and the Boundary Ch 11-21
  1. Naming the Party the Duty Binds
  2. Refiner, Importer, Blender or Supplier
  3. The Point in the Chain Where Duty Attaches
  4. Which Fuels Sit Inside the Boundary
  5. Road, Off-Road, Rail and the Uses That Escape
  6. The Volume Base the Percentage Is Applied To
  7. Thresholds and the Supplier Just Below One
  8. Exemption and Hardship Relief as Design Features
  9. Who Is Obligated in a Tolling or Exchange Deal
  10. Group Companies and the Aggregation Question
  11. Registration as the Gate to Participation
M2 How a Target Is Measured Ch 22-32
  1. Three Ways to State the Same Ambition
  2. The Volumetric Obligation and Its Blind Spot
  3. The Energy-Based Obligation
  4. The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Obligation
  5. One Fuel Under Three Measures
  6. A Blending Percentage Rewritten as an Intensity Cut
  7. Physical Blend Requirement Against Pooled Compliance
  8. The Trajectory as a Published Supply Schedule
  9. When the Regulator Sets the Figure Each Year
  10. A Statutory Table and the Authority to Depart From It
  11. What a Scheme Does When the Target Exceeds Supply
M3 Sub-Targets, Caps and Multipliers Ch 33-42
  1. Why a Scheme Nests One Target Inside Another
  2. How a Nested Obligation Binds in Practice
  3. Carve-Outs for Fuels Nobody Can Yet Make
  4. The Crop Cap and the Reasoning Behind It
  5. The Cap Protection Argument and Its Assumptions
  6. Waste and Residue Lists as a Design Device
  7. Multipliers: Counting One Unit as Two
  8. Which Fuels Schemes Choose to Multiply
  9. The Multiplier Distortion Argument and Its Assumptions
  10. An Illustrative Nested Obligation Worked Through
M4 Flexibility, Deadlines and the Buy-Out Ch 43-52
  1. The Compliance Period as a Design Choice
  2. The Deadline Chain From Year End to Discharge
  3. Carrying a Surplus Into the Next Year
  4. Deficit Carry-Forward and the Debt to Next Year
  5. Making the Compliance Unit Tradable
  6. The Buy-Out Price as a Soft Ceiling
  7. Penalty, Make-Good and the Duty That Survives
  8. Pooling and Joint Compliance Between Suppliers
  9. Does Flexibility Weaken the Target
  10. An Illustrative Year-End Flexibility Decision
M5 Incentives: The Other Side of the Ledger Ch 53-64
  1. What an Incentive Is Paying For
  2. Operating Support Against Capital Support
  3. The Volumetric Tax Credit and Who Captures It
  4. A Producer Credit Keyed to Carbon Intensity
  5. Expiry, Lapse and Retroactive Reinstatement
  6. Excise Relief as a Quiet Subsidy
  7. Competitive Grant Award and the Bid You Submit
  8. Guaranteeing a Price Rather Than a Volume
  9. Support Funded by a Levy on the Feedstock Trade
  10. Administered Prices Alongside a Mandate
  11. Stacking an Incentive on Top of an Obligation
  12. Feedstock-Side Incentives and Their Unintended Pull
M6 Volume-Mandate Markets Compared Ch 65-75
  1. The Volume-Mandate Family Defined
  2. The United States Renewable Fuel Standard as a Design
  3. How a National Target Becomes One Supplier's Percentage
  4. Brazil's Blend Mandate and Who Sets the Percentage
  5. RenovaBio as a Credit Layer Above a Mandate
  6. India's Programme and the Single Buyer Route
  7. Indonesia's Mandate and Its Funding Loop
  8. A Sub-National Mandate Inside a National Market
  9. A Mandate Implemented Province by Province
  10. An Obligation Placed on Refiners Rather Than Suppliers
  11. Comparing Four Volume Mandates on One Page
M7 Intensity-Standard Markets Compared Ch 76-86
  1. The Intensity-Standard Family Defined
  2. The Benchmark and Why It Declines
  3. California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard as a Design
  4. The Pacific Coast Variants and What They Changed
  5. British Columbia's Standard and Its Longer Record
  6. Canada's Federal Regulations Above a Provincial Standard
  7. Germany's Quota Design and Its Feedstock Consequence
  8. Sweden's Reduction Obligation and Its Separate Pools
  9. Crediting Electricity and Hydrogen Inside a Fuel Standard
  10. Why Intensity Programmes Generate a Credit Surplus
  11. Volume Mandate Against Intensity Standard: What Each Buys
M8 Supranational Design and National Transposition Ch 87-96
  1. When the Target and the Duty Sit in Different Laws
  2. The Transposition Window and What Happens Inside It
  3. One Target, Several National Instruments
  4. Recasts, Amendments and Knowing Which Text Binds
  5. Eligibility Criteria as a Gate Before the Target
  6. The Indirect Land Use Change Argument and Its Assumptions
  7. Designating a Feedstock as High Risk
  8. A Sector Regulation That Binds Suppliers Directly
  9. Why One Target Produces Several National Prices
  10. Reading a Directive and Its National Law Together
M9 Aviation and Marine Scheme Design Ch 97-107
  1. Why Aviation and Marine Needed Their Own Instruments
  2. A Mandate Imposed at the Airport Gate
  3. Anti-Tankering as a Design Necessity
  4. A National Aviation Mandate With a Tradable Certificate
  5. Sub-Targets for Synthetic Aviation Fuel
  6. Blend Limits as a Ceiling on Any Aviation Mandate
  7. An Offsetting Scheme That Admits a Fuel Claim
  8. Marine Fuel Intensity as a Vessel-Level Obligation
  9. Pooling and Banking Between Ships
  10. A Global Measure Against a Regional One
  11. Where a Claim Can Be Detached From the Molecule
M10 How Settings Move, and What Follows Ch 108-118
  1. A Setting Is a Decision Someone Takes
  2. Primary Legislation, Delegated Rule and Guidance
  3. Reading a Consultation as a Volume Signal
  4. Waivers and the Power to Lower a Target
  5. Retroactive Change and the Contract Already Signed
  6. A Mandate Legislated and Then Abandoned
  7. Transition Design When a Scheme Is Replaced
  8. Who Enforces, and How Hard
  9. Scheme Interaction When Two Obligations Overlap
  10. Import Eligibility and the Border a Scheme Draws
  11. A Scheme Diary for the Year Ahead
M11 Putting the Whole Design to Work Ch 119-129
  1. Placing an Unfamiliar Scheme in Twenty Minutes
  2. Designing an Obligation From Scratch, Part One: Boundary and Measure
  3. Designing an Obligation From Scratch, Part Two: Flexibility and Support
  4. Designing an Obligation From Scratch, Part Three: Enforcement and Stress Test
  5. One Cargo Placed Under Three Schemes
  6. Diagnosing a Scheme Whose Target Is Not Being Met
  7. A Producer's Market Entry Decision, Part One: Reading the Schemes
  8. A Producer's Market Entry Decision, Part Two: The Policy Risk Weighting
  9. What This Material Deliberately Flattens
  10. What Scheme Design Cannot Tell You
  11. Which Later Course Finishes Which Thread

The brochure gives each of these 129 chapters a paragraph on what it covers and what you can do once you have worked through it.

This is course 4 of twenty

It stands alone, and it is also the entry point to the Biofuels and SAF Desk Academy pathway.

Enrol or enquire See the whole pathway