Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate Library

Co-firing with Biomass in Indonesia: Debunking emissions reduction claims

Co-firing coal with biomass in power stations is claimed by Indonesia’s state electricity company (PT PLN) to be a necessary part of the country's transition to renewable energy. Currently, 52 coal power stations plan to co-fire with 5-10% biomass in order to meet the countries Nationally Determined Contributions, as outlined by the Paris Agreement. However, research by Trend Asia has found that co-firing even just this amount will lead to the deforestation of millions of hectares of land and its conversion into tree plantations for energy. In addition to this, instead of reducing carbon emissions as is claimed, burning coal with biomass will actually increase carbon emissions, especially in the forest and land sector.

Government subsidies for electricity generation and combined heat and power (CHP) from solid biomass

Updated report for 2022

EU climate plan sacrifices carbon storage and biodiversity for bioenergy

Incoming policies will cause the European Union to harvest more wood, shift one-fifth of cropland to bioenergy and outsource deforestation, analysis shows.

Burning up the carbon sink: How the EU’s forest biomass policy undermines climate mitigation, and how it can be reformed

Meeting EU climate targets and achieving climate stability requires significantly increasing carbon storage in forests. But new data from the UNFCCC shows that most EU countries are losing or have lost their forest and land carbon sinks.

Visual: How a Carbon Accounting Problem is Driving the Biomass Delusion – Editable file

An editable version of the visual story for groups to use to translate into other languages.

Burning Biomass for electricity – Analyzing risks and searching for better alternatives in Indonesia

The impacts of the pulp and paper industry’s domination of the biomass electricity market in Portugal

Portugal’s pulp and paper sector is making record profits despite the current intersecting global crises. Its heavy investments in biomass electricity are a contributing factor, and it now produces almost 80% of the electricity generated from burning biomass in Portugal through its combined heat and power (CHP) and electricity-only power stations, and operates over half of the dedicated biomass electricity capacity.

Underlying the sector’s focus on biomass electricity are generous renewable energy subsidies. This incentive for burning woody biomass has encouraged the pulp and paper sector to decouple biomass burning from relying on by-products of the pulping process as a feedstock. Less than half of the woody biomass burned by the sector comes from bark and other industrial by-products, with the majority being sourced directly from forestry operations.

Acumulando pressão – Os impactos do domínio das celuloses sobre o mercado de produção de eletricidadea partir de biomassa em Portugal

O sector da pasta e do papel em Portugal está a obter lucros recorde, apesar das atuais crises globais. Os seus pesados investimentos na produção de eletricidade a partir da queima de biomassa contribuem para estes lucros; este sector produz agora quase 80% da eletricidade gerada a partir de biomassa em Portugal através de centrais de cogeração e centrais elétricas dedicadas à biomassa. O sector também controla mais de metade da capacidade da geração elétrica dedicada à biomassa.

Biomass accounting is no longer fit for purpose

A peculiarity of UNFCCC and IPCC carbon accounting and reporting methodology is leading to unfair attribution of emissions from large-scale bioenergy. What is emerging, is an unintentional but concerning example of climate colonialism.