Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate Library

Here we present a global analysis of 403 tropical and temperate tree species, showing that for most species mass growth rate increases continuously with tree size.

Letter Regarding Use of Forests for Bioenergy to President Biden, President von der Leyen, President Michel, Prime Minister Suga, and President Moon signed by around 500 scientists, February 2021

Tree plantations and forest restoration are leading strategies for enhancing terrestrial carbon (C) sequestration and mitigating climate change. While it is well established that species-rich natural forests offer superior C sequestering benefits relative to short-rotation commercial monoculture plantations, differences in rates of C capture and storage between longer-lived plantations (commercial or non-commercial) and natural forests remain unclear. Using a natural experiment in the Western Ghats of India, where late-20th century conservation laws prohibited timber extraction from monodominant plantations and natural forests within nature reserves, we assessed forests and plantations for aboveground C storage and the magnitude and temporal stability of rates of photosynthetic C capture (gross primary production). Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that species-rich forests show greater temporal stability of C capture, and are more resistant to drought, than monodominant plantations.
Note: This paper is highly relevant to biomass energy which commonly involves conversion of forests to tree plantations

"Wälder sind Kohlenstoffspeicher Holzverbrennung ist nicht klimaneutral"
A statement by research institutes in Germany, including the Centre for Econics and Ecosystem Management, Hochschule für nachhaltige Entwicklung, Naturwald Akademie and Deutsche Umweltstiftung, published in March 2020

The article explains the importance of increasing the amount of deadwood, including logging residues left in forests and highlights how their increased removal for biomass energy contributes to forest degradation.

North Carolina has 19 million acres of forest, which store nearly 1.3 trillion tons of carbon. While this sounds impressive, logging destroys forest carbon in North Carolina each year. Logging is third in the state’s carbon emissions, behind electricity and transportation. Logging degrades our carbon stores, forest quality, and resilience to future natural disasters. Yet, the true costs of logging hide in forest “net growth” – that a forest is growing more than it’s cut. Dogwood Alliance have put together a two-part report which explores these issues in more depth (Part 1: Forest Carbon Accounting; Part 2: Climate Impacts and Smart Solutions) This is Part 2 of the report.

A set of 3 images highlighting the cost to forests of burning pellets made from trees.

Research paper that considers whether current State aid rules for solid biomass are still fit for purpose, which reveals an important discrepancy between the specific way in which biomass support is treated by the current rules and the rationale and objectives of the current State aid regime for renewable energy.

A scientific and legal analysis of why “sustainability” protections in the EU’s recast Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) provide cover for continued logging, GHG emissions, and forest damage from biomass harvesting.

Review of evidence on the impact of demand for bioenergy on forests, concluding that the available evidence doesn’t support assumptions that bioenergy demand will improve forest management and encourage new planting and that oolicymakers should not assume that forest bioenergy will significantly mitigate climate change.

Europe-wide analysis of (1) the cost of energy (LCOE); (2) network costs; (3) external costs of energy; (4) energy taxes; (5) energy subsidies; and, (6) energy investments, concluding that biomass energy and fossil fuels have the highest energy costs.

A film exploring the negative impacts of biomass energy generation in Portugal.

An analysis of the possible impacts of burning Namibian bushwood in Hamburg, highlighting that it would involve increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Full report in German.