Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate Library

What is the real link between biomass energy and forest fires?

This new study intends to answer the questions; Has the installation of multiple biomass power stations throughout mainland Portugal contributed to reducing or increasing the risk of forest fires? We focus on a specific case: the Fundão Biomass Power Plant, located in the Cova da Beira region, between the Gardunha and Estrela mountain ranges, in central Portugal.

Logging does indeed increase fire risks!

Logging does indeed increase the risk of high severity wildfires. And the evidence for this worrying narrative comes from work by many scientists across Australia and in fact around the world. These places include Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, western North America, Canada, and South America. As importantly, these elevated fire risks persist for up to 70 years after a forest has been logged and regenerated

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.

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

This report 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.

The report looks at the EU’s top five pulp-producing countries – Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Germany and Spain – and finds that in all but the case of Germany, the pulp and paper industry is the dominant force in the biomass energy sector. The case studies can also be downloaded separately from the biomass library.

Burning down Finnish forests: The scale and impacts of using woody biomass for energy by the pulp and paper industry

Finland is one of the most biomass dependent countries in Europe when it comes to generating energy, and 30% of the energy consumed in Finland in 2021 was produced by burning biomass, with more than half of this being woody biomass (57%). Wood-based fuels account for as much as 70% of so-called renewable energy in Finland. It has been the single largest source of energy in Finland since 2012.

Pulp mills and biomass plants in Germany

At least two pulp and paper companies are expanding into wider biomass energy markets, beyond supplying process energy and selling some
additional electricity to the grid. These are Mercer International, which has built a 150,000 tonne capacity wood pellet plant, and Koehler Group, which operates
five biomass cogeneration plants that don’t supply the company’s paper mills. Koehler Group has also recently acquired two wood and biomass logistics and trading companies, one in Germany, the other in France.

Biomass energy and pulp production in Spain

ENCE Energía & Celulosa is Spain’s largest producer of both pulp and biomass electricity. The company operates two pulp mills in Galicia and Asturias with a combined capacity of over one million tonnes of pulp, and both mills have biomass CHP plants that burn woody biomass alongside recovery boilers that burn black liquor.

The reindeer are starving: The contribution of burning biomass to the impacts of pulp production in Sweden

Sweden produced around 12 million tonnes of pulp in 2022, accounting for over a quarter of Europe’s total pulp production and making it Europe’s largest producer. Bioenergy is Sweden’s largest energy source and accounts for almost a third of total energy supply. Almost 60% of final energy use in the industrial sector is bioenergy, and the pulp and paper industry accounts for much of this.