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Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate Library

Welcome to the Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate library. It has been brought together by the Forest, Climate and Biomass Working Group of the Environmental Paper Network. We want activists, communities, scholars – anyone who’s interested in forest biomass issues – to be able to find all the key resources in one place. So we’ve gathered together key resources that present case studies and explain the science behind biomass energy and its impacts on forests and climate.

If you have any suggestions for resources we should have in this library or any comments about it, please contact us. You may also find our Frequently Asked Questions helpful.

Climate impacts in northern forests

AirClim’s Northern Forests and Climate Change project aims to increase the visibility of Northern forests in the international climate debate. Their report Climate impacts in northern forests takes a look at the important role the boreal and temperate forests that stretch across the north of Asia, North America and Europe play in our climate system and for climate mitigation.

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Organization: AirClim

Author: Dalia Kellou, Alexander Nauels, Uta Klönne

Date: 2024

Location: Array

Language: English

Type of resource: Report

Topics:

National Energy and Climate Plans and Carbon Sink Analysis for EU Member States

A new report by PFPI assesses how well the EU Member States have met reporting requirements on bioenergy and the land sink in their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), and includes the latest data on biomass use, the forest and land carbon sink, and modeling projections. The report found that most Member States have failed to provide basic information in their draft NECPs on bioenergy and its impact on the forest and land carbon sink, earning them failing grades.

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Organization: PFPI

Author: PFPI

Date: 2024

Location: Array

Language: English

Type of resource: Report

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Surviving trees and deadwood moderate changes in soil fungal communities and associated functioning after natural forest disturbance and salvage logging

This research demonstrates a significant response of soil fungal communities to natural forest disturbance and salvage logging, with consequences for decomposition and soil organic matter dynamics and concludes that the retention of surviving trees and deadwood as biological legacies attenuated associated changes to a significant extent, highlighting their importance for the preservation of ectomycorrhizal fungi and the maintenance of decomposition processes after disturbance.

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Organization: Science Direct

Author: Mathias Mayer et al.

Date: 2022

Location: Array

Language: English

Type of resource: Academic article

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Why hydrogen from bioenergy cannot reduce greenhouse gas emissions

Hydrogen is being strongly promoted by governments, especially in Europe and North America, as part of their ‘net zero’ climate strategies. This is despite the fact that, so far, 98% of
hydrogen has been made from fossil fuels, resulting in even more CO2 emissions than burning the same fossil fuels directly for energy. This is even true in the small number of cases where CO2 from hydrogen production is being captured. However, there is growing momentum for expanding so-called ‘green hydrogen’, made from renewable electricity.

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Organization: Biofuelwatch

Author: Biofuelwatch

Date: 2022

Location: Array

Language: English

Type of resource: Briefing

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EU climate targets aligned with the Paris agreement’s 1.5°C objective

This paper aims to look at the implications of current EU policies and targets on the EU’s carbon budget, the processes to set or update the EU’s 2030, 2035 and 2040 targets, and highlights the need for much more ambition in target setting if the EU is to make a fair share to the global efforts to limit dangerous climate change.

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Organization: AirClim

Author: Wendel Trio

Date: 2023

Location: Array

Language: English

Type of resource: Report

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Progress Report 2023 – Shifting gears: Increasing the pace of progress towards a green and prosperous future Climate Action

This report outlines how the EU has progressed during the last year towards meeting our climate goals and international climate commitments, including, for the first time ever, an assessment of progress towards the climate neutrality and adaptation objectives, as required under the European Climate Law. Member States will submit their final updated National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) in June 2024. This is an opportunity to plan additional measures to align their expected emissions with the EU’s higher level of climate policy ambition. In addition to assessing the progress made in climate policy under the Governance Regulation14, for the first time this year this report assesses progress under the European Climate Law15, including the collective progress made by Member States towards the EU’s goal to achieve climate-neutrality by 205016. It looks at progress on several aspects and from several sources and takes account of the complexity inherent in the many possible paths to achieve a net-zero and resilient economy.

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Organization: European Commission

Author: https://climate.ec.europa.eu/

Date: 2023

Location: Array

Language: English

Type of resource: Report

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Biomass 101

With the threat of climate change looming, developing clean, renewable sources of energy has become one of the most critical tasks of the century. Burning wood biomass to produce electricity is an increasingly buzzed-about solution—but it’s not as simple as it seems. Proponents of this energy source, often affiliated with the logging and paper industries, claim biomass is a carbon-neutral replacement for dirty fossil fuels. But many environmentalists are poking holes in that argument, demonstrating that biomass may actually make climate change worse. Here’s everything you need to know about this controversial alternative fuel.

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Organization: NRDC

Author: Courtney Lindwall

Date: 2022

Location: Array

Language: English

Type of resource: Briefing

Topics: