Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate Library

Investing in Europe’s prosperity – A vision for financing the transition to sustainability 2024–2030

The transition to sustainability will enable social, economic and financial prosperity and stability in the European Union (EU). The EU’s climate targets set out in the European Green Deal demonstrate its commitment to achieving a fair and prosperous future for all citizens. Achieving those goals requires mobilising significant private finance towards the sustainability objectives. Public finance also needs to work harder and smarter to shift the system and bring in more private finance. Policy choices will have to be made against a backdrop of challenging geopolitical, economic and social dynamics.

Burning American Forests to Electrify Europe – Wood Pellet Documentary – North Carolina USA

Cutting trees down to use as fuel in energy production–known as biomass energy or bioenergy–is one of the most counterproductive things we can do if our goal is clean air and a livable planet. Despite this reality, policymakers around the world have invested heavily in bioenergy. Nowhere is this more true than in the European Union, where bioenergy policies in the UK and other member states enable billions in subsidies each year to flow to the balance sheets of large utility companies, padding their profits and financing the conversion of old coal-fired power plants to burn wood.

Stop devastating and burning forests for energy production – a film on Croatia

A powerful short video by the Croatian NGO Green Squad on the bioenergy industry in Croatia

Japan Biomass Annual 2023

Japan has been dramatically increasing its wood pellet imports for its feed-in tariff (FIT) program, as more large-scale FIT-approved biomass power plants become operational. Palm kernel shell imports may slow down in the coming years, as Japan begins to enforce sustainability certification requirement from April 2024.

‘Green’ finance bankrolls deforestation in Papua

​​Millions of dollars in green financing intended to help Indonesia reduce its carbon emissions have been invested in a project that is destroying rainforest in Papua, one of the world’s most biodiverse landscapes.

The money has been used to help an Indonesian conglomerate, Medco Group, construct a biomass power plant that is being fuelled by burning wood and now it is bulldozing rainforest in the nation’s Papua province. Medco Group has said it will clear 2,500 hectares (6,200 acres) of land to meet the demands of the plant, billed as a way to help the country kick its fossil fuel habit.

Whistleblower exposes top biomass producer’s empty promises

A biomass industry insider tells Mongabay in exclusive interviews that Enviva, the world’s largest maker of wood pellets for energy, is disingenuous in its green, eco-friendly claims to the public and stockholders.

Adu klaim menurunkan emisi

Indonesia’s cofiring program — reducing the amount of coal used in power generation by cutting it with wood pellets — will result in massive deforestation and a net emissions surge, an energy policy think tank warns. Under the government’s 10% biomass cofiring plan, up to 1.05 million hectares (2.59 million acres) of forest could be cleared for acacia and eucalyptus plantations to provide wood pellets. This would result in up to 489 million metric tons of emissions — a vastly greater amount than the 1 million tons in reduced emissions that cofiring is expected to achieve.

The analysis, by Trend Asia, also shows that, if anything, Indonesia’s coal consumption has only increased with higher biomass cofiring, and that this trend is expected to continue through 2030 as more new coal plants are built.

An article about the report in English: https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/emissions-and-deforestation-set-to-spike-under-indonesias-biomass-transition/

Carbon capture from biomass and waste incineration: Hype versus reality

Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) has been gaining traction in the debate around climate change mitigation, with governments developing funding and business frameworks to incentivise such projects. BECCS is misleadingly classified as a ‘carbon removals technology’, based on the false assumption that biomass energy is carbon neutral and that capturing and storing CO2 from burning wood or other biomass makes it ‘carbon negative’.

Wood-burning is the largest source of deadly air pollution in Europe – So why does the EU encourage burning wood for “renewable energy”?

EU data reveal that that fine particulate matter (PM2.5) alone was responsible for up to 379,000 deaths in the EU-28 in 2018. The majority of PM2.5 - 54% - was emitted by households
and other establishments that burn solid fuels, mostly wood, for heat, while the energy sector and road transport were responsible for 18% and 11% of PM2.5 respectively.

FDA Air pollution factsheet