Biomass Energy, Forests and Climate Library

The Biomass Chain of Destruction

A climate and biodiversity loophole: Support for biomass power undermines Global Targets – a South Korea case

Contrary to the latest science, many climate pledges include burning forest biomass for energy as a mitigation option; this is a false solution with demonstrated negative consequences for the climate and biodiversity. Developed countries in particular heavily incentivize the use of biomass, sometimes on greater levels than genuine renewables, such as wind and solar, as exemplified in the case of South Korea.

Unheeded Warnings: Forest Biomass Threats to Tropical Forests in Indonesia and Southeast Asia

Indonesia is home to some of the Earth's most biodiverse and carbon-rich forests, and 50 to 70 million Indigenous people who rely on these intact ecosystems for their survival. Yet burning wood in biomass power or "co-fired" in coal power plants could bring Indonesia’s forests to an "irreversible point" by 2040. Carbon reduction policies that divert public dollars from solar and wind into biomass energy threaten forests and biodiversity across Southeast Asia.

Burning up the biosphere: A global threat map of biomass energy development, 2024 update

This report is the second in a series summarising the scale and global extent of a continually growing threat to the world’s forests, people and climate, posed by the biomass energy industry. A global network of civil society organisations, the Biomass Action Network of EPN International, has collaborated to map out the threat that this industry poses.

More than money: Development banks must strengthen human rights safeguards

Each year, public development banks make vital decisions on the financing of hundreds of development cooperation projects and business activities around the world in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. At the 2022 Finance in Common Summit in Abidjan, five public development banks issued a statement in which they recognised their ‘special role and responsibility in raising the stakes of the human rights-based approach to development’.

Biochar: A critical perspective

In 2011, Biofuelwatch published a comprehensive report, “Biochar: a critical review of science and policy”. In 2020, we provided an
update to that report. Given the proliferation of initiatives to develop commercial-scale biochar and burgeoning policy and financial support, we
feel compelled to provide this more recent update in 2024.

Carbon carrying capacity in primary forests shows potential for mitigation achieving the European Green Deal 2030 target

Estimated carbon gain by protecting, restoring and ongoing growth of existing forests equated to 309 megatons carbon dioxide equivalents per year, additional to, and higher than, the current forest sink, and comparable to the Green Deal 2030 target for carbon dioxide removals.

What does the future hold? Rural communities discuss European forests and how to protect them

Ahead of upcoming European Parliament elections, Fern commissioned the insight firm GlobeScan to conducta deep listening exercise to learn from rural and forest-livelihoods communities in Czechia, France, Germany and Poland. The outcomes paint a nuanced picture. This briefing, both a summary of and a response to the final GlobeScan report, lists the most stimulating take-aways and what they could mean for the next EU legislative term. They offer insights for future EU decisions, debates, and policies related to forests, but also for broader debates on EU policy-making.

Burning forests: the wood pellet industry’s framing of sustainability and its shadow places

This paper examines the woody biomass industry’s construction of sustainability by focusing on the case of the world’s largest wood pellet company, Enviva. Following ecolinguistics and framing theory, the first part of the paper examines the company’s website and social media presence to unpack the frames that Enviva engages to communicate its sustainability. Then, the paper turns to the spheres of life that the company omits from its framing but are crucial to the conceptualization of sustainability from an ecojustice perspective.