Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate Library

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.

Bioenergy is Putting Britain’s Energy Security At Risk

New analysis shows that the volume of energy crops the Government would need to import every year by 2050 to
fulfil the requirements of its strategy would require up to 2.4 million hectares of land overseas to grow them. This is equivalent to all the arable land that Denmark has, As well as throwing up important questions for climate justice this reveals why security of supply is such an issue. If global demand for wood pellets increases as other countries seek to develop BECCS in pursuit of their own climate goals, there is a real risk that food production will be squeezed. The UK Government does not appear to have seriously engaged with realities of finite resources and global market dynamics.

Report of the Climate Forestry Committee: Recommendations for Climate-Oriented Forest Management Guidelines

Massachusetts was the first state in the US to recognize that burning forest biomass generally increases emissions compared to fossil fuels, ultimately deleting biomass electricity plants from the list of technologies eligible to receive renewable energy subsidies. The state’s science-based approach to policymaking on climate is now showcased in a this report on forests as climate solutions.

Forests’ hidden secrets webinar

To be able to effectively protect and restore Europe’s forests, we need reliable and up-to-date datasets at the disposal of national and EU authorities as well as the public.

On 12 October 2023, Greens/EFA organised a conference on forest monitoring in advance of an upcoming legislative proposal from the European Commission.