Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate Library

The first Annual Barometer on the wood pellet industry in Portugal

NGO ZERO has exposed the industry’s unsustainable use of biomass In Portugal to reveal a significant recent increase in installed capacity.

Around 815,000 tonnes of wood pellets were produced in Portugal in 2021, requiring more than 1.5 million tonnes of wood. 510,000 tonnes were exported, mostly to burn in converted coal-fired power stations and other plants that burn biomass for electricity generation in the United Kingdom, Denmark and the Netherlands.

In Portugal there are now 26 pellet plants with a total installed capacity of over 1.7 million tonnes per year. Pine (maritime pine or pinheiro bravo) is the main species used by pellet manufacturers and most of the wood they use is from whole trees directly from forestry operations. This has significant climate impacts, and puts enormous pressure on pine stands that are already in rapid decline in Portugal.

CO2 emissions from biomass combustion: Accounting of CO2 emissions from biomass under the UNFCCC

In this paper, we review the present IPCC carbon mass flow approach and propose a change in the reporting and accounting methods that has the potential to address this national GHG emissions reporting issue.

Biomass Delusion Statement in Japanese

森林バイオマスエネルギーに関する意見表明

How UNFCCC carbon accounting has created a biomass delusion is contributing to climate change and global inequity – Japanese version

The EU’s Renewable Energy Policies Driving the Logging and Burning of Europe’s Protected Forests

A new investigation from the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reveals that more than a dozen biomass facilities and pellet factories across four countries in Eastern and Central Europe received tens of thousands of whole logs from protected forests. Not only were these inputs not wood waste, as the industry claims, but they were sourced from Natura 2000 sites, Nature Reserves and National Parks, contributing to the destruction of the last wild forests on the continent.

False Biomass Energy Industry Claims Demand a Response

Scientists with expertise in forest and fire ecology and climate change in California, are compelled to expose the many false claims from the biomass industry in regards, in particular the claim that harvesting wood for biomass is good fire management practise.

Battle Over Emissions Reductions Claims

A report by Trend Asia finds that co-firing coal with biomass increases emissions.

Latin-America Biomass Info graphics

Una serie de infografías producidas por Latin-America Biomass Group para resaltar los problemas de la biomasa en América Latina.

A series of info-graphics produced by the Latin America Biomass Group.

The Biomass Industry – A new form of colonialism?

A webinar exploring the unjust carbon accounting rules which allow responsibility for carbon emissions from biomass to fall on producing, rather than consuming, countries. It includes the screening of the documentary “The Impact of APSD Plantation on Communities in Atebubu” by Civic Response. The documentary explores the impacts that plantations established for a biomass power plant, are having on a local community in the Bono East Region of Ghana