Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate Library

Debunking industry myths – why burning forest biomass for bioenergy does not reduce the risk of wildfires

A Biomass Action Network webinar to debunk the biomass industry myth that burning forest biomass for bioenergy reduces the risk of wildfires. The biomass industry is using this narrative to justify its expansion, when the reality is that burning biomass is driving the climate crisis that exacerbates the intensity and frequency of wildfires around the world.

The panel includes speakers from fire prone regions in Chile, Portugal and California:
Robinson Torres - professor of sociology at the University of Concepción in Chile
Paulo Pimento do Castro - forestry engineer and president of the NGOs Acréscimo and IRIS, and co-author of the book "Portugal in Flames: How to rescue the forests."
Gary Hughes - a campaigner from Biofuelwatch based in California and currently active on the campaign to stop 2 new pellet mills by GSNR.

Webinar: Beaten to a Pulp – How the pulp and paper industry is burning EU forests for energy

A webinar based on the report "Beaten to a Pulp" by Biofuelwatch and the Environmental Paper Network International, exposes the extent to which the EU’s major wood pulp producers generate and sell energy produced by burning wood sourced directly from forestry operations. In the largest pulp-producing countries, the report estimates that over a fifth of the wood sourced directly from forestry operations that is burned for energy can be attributed to the pulp industry with, on average, one cubic metre being burned for every tonne of pulp produced.

Fooling ourselves while burning our trees?

Over the last decades, burning wood for energy has expanded in the EU, as have proposals for implementing Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). The origins of this questionable boom can be found in accounting loopholes, which allow burning woody biomass to be classed as carbon neutral and BECCS as carbon negative. Based on these loopholes and large lobby power, (woody) biomass has received generous subsidies and been counted towards renewable energy targets in the EU. A large international supply chain has developed, with wood pellets being shipped all the way from forests in the U.S. Southeast to generate energy in the EU.

Accounting for forest condition in Europe based on an international statistical standard

Covering 35% of Europe’s land area, forest ecosystems play a crucial role in safeguarding biodiversity and mitigating climate change. Yet, forest degradation continues to undermine key ecosystem services that forests deliver to society. Here we provide a spatially explicit assessment of the condition of forest ecosystems in Europe following a United Nations global statistical standard on ecosystem accounting, adopted in March 2021.

Assessing the Cumulative Impacts of Forest Management on Forest Age Structure Development and Woodland Caribou Habitat in Boreal Landscapes: A Case Study from Two Canadian Provinces

Canada has long promoted itself globally as a model for protecting one of the country’s most vital natural resources: the world’s largest swath of boreal forest, which is crucial to fighting climate change. But a new study using nearly half a century of data from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec — two of the country’s main commercial logging regions — reveals that harvesting trees has inflicted severe damage on the boreal forest that will be difficult to reverse. Researchers led by a group from Griffith University in Australia found that since 1976 logging in the two provinces has caused the removal of 35.4 million acres of boreal forest, an area roughly the size of New York State.

We burn the forest with state subsidies for low-efficiency electricity, and because of this, firewood is also more expensive

In Hungary, five large biomass power plants use nearly a third of all firewood, a significant part of which comes from forests that are valuable for nature conservation. Since 2003, these power plants have received HUF 323 billion in government subsidies, compared to HUF 185 billion in subsidies for solar and wind energy, while their role in the domestic electricity system is minimal. Their operation also distorts the residential firewood market, and price competition hurts households with lower incomes and living in energy poverty the most.

Sustainable forest bioenergy

Discussion paper by the German biomass research center (DBFZ) on the necessity of pricing CO2 emissions from wood-burning.

Subsidized Deforestation: 10 Years of Biomass Power in South Korea

This report presents our analysis of the outcomes of 10 years of burning biomass in South Korea from both the energy and forest perspectives. Key findings include that Biomass for electricity emitted approximately 11 million tCO2 in 2022 alone, which exceeds all the annual forest carbon sink enhancements the government has committed to achieving by 2050, effectively nullifying the government’s net-zero commitments in the forest sector.

Banking on Biodiversity Collapse

This report maps commercial financial flows attributable to the forest-risk commodity sectors driving the majority of tropical deforestation. Forests & Finance analyzes 300 of the largest companies operating in the production of beef, palm, oil, pulp and paper, rubber, soy, and timber in the world’s three major tropical forest biomes: Southeast Asia, South America, and Central and West Africa. From January 2016 to September 2023, banks provided at least US$ 307 billion in credit to these operations. In addition, they were supported by institutional investors, which held US$ 38 billion in shares and bonds as of September 2023.