ERGaR is an international, nonprofit organization based in Brussels. It was founded to establish a trusted system for the cross-border transfer of biomethane certificates between national registries in Europe. To this end, ERGaR brings together established gas registries and key players in the European renewable gas market.
ERGaR’s core objective is to interconnect national registries so that biomethane certificates can be traded securely and transparently across national borders. For Germany, the dena Biogas Registry is integrated into ERGaR as the national partner registry.
The Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB) is an international nonprofit organization that serves as the umbrella organization for government-designated issuing bodies responsible for Guarantees of Origin (GOs) in Europe. Its members are typically transmission system operators, regulatory authorities, or energy market operators that are responsible for administering GOs in their respective countries.
The AIB ensures that guarantees of origin function according to uniform rules throughout Europe. Its EECS system has been established for electricity for nearly two decades; since 2019, there has also been an EECS Gas Scheme for gaseous energy sources such as biomethane and hydrogen. The legal basis is provided by Article 19 of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II/RED III).
The following table shows the key similarities and differences:
|
|
ERGaR |
AIB |
|
Focus |
Renewable gases (primarily biomethane) |
All energy sources (electricity, gas, H₂) |
|
Instrument |
Certificates of Origin (CoO) |
Guarantees of Origin (GO) via EECS |
|
Platform |
Cert-X Europe |
EECS Hub |
|
Members |
National Gas Registers and Market Participants |
Government-Designated Issuing Bodies |
|
Legal Basis |
Private Sector / Voluntary |
Art. 19 RED II/RED III (EU law) |
|
Focus |
Mass balance + certificate transfer for biomethane |
Standardization + disclosure for all energy sources |
|
German Register |
dena Biogas Registry |
UBA (Certificate of Origin Registry) |
ERGaR and AIB pursue similar goals—the cross-border, trustworthy transfer of certificates—but from different perspectives. ERGaR focuses on the gas market and the interconnection of national biomethane registries via the CoO system. The AIB, on the other hand, standardizes certificates of origin across energy sources and provides a legally established framework through the EECS.
In practice, the systems can complement each other: A biomethane producer can trade its certificates across borders via ERGaR and, at the same time, provide a legally recognized guarantee of origin for the end consumer through AIB’s EECS system. The further integration of both systems is an active topic in European energy policy.
Sources
As of February 2026