Blog post by Peg Putt, Co-coordinator of the Forests, Climate and Biomass Energy Working Group
Beyond Burning, the video from Stand.earth and Emma Thompson, is timely in calling out forest biomass burning as a false solution to climate change. A clamour of false solutions pushed by vested interests followed the Climate COP 26, held in Glasgow late last year. Confusion abounds. We want to stop burning coal, by burning something else?
Burning biomass is a false solution that has huge implications. The range of unacceptable impacts on people and the planet are real and deeply problematic.
Earth’s remaining forests are rich stores of carbon and crucial havens for wildlife. They are also the ancient homes of many millions of Indigenous people and of vital importance to the survival of local communities. It takes a special sort of genius to sell the large-scale logging and burning of forests as a climate solution, but governments and people are all too easily hoodwinked.
The science is clear: burning forest biomass actually emits more carbon than burning coal, per unit of energy produced. But a myth is perpetrated that because trees can be grown again it’s all OK. It’s described as carbon neutral or maybe even zero emissions. It certainly is not.
Think about how long it would take for an entire forest to regrow and absorb that carbon back from the atmosphere – we are talking of decades or even centuries, and that’s if it is ever allowed to happen. But the release of carbon is instantaneous and immediately contributes to global warming. The IPCC tells us that we have only a very short period to dramatically reduce emissions – halve by 2030 and down to net zero by 2050 – definitely no time to incinerate forests in ever greater quantities and hope for some fanciful recovery to even take us back to square one, let alone improve the situation.
Biomass sourced at volume from natural forests and plantations, then burnt to generate energy, is disastrous for both climate and biodiversity as well as for local communities. The plunder is escalating and vast amounts of logged forest are being shipped into Europe, the UK, South Korea and Japan. Natural forests in southern USA, Canada, Estonia and Latvia are getting the chop and this is expanding to the forests of south-east Asia, Australia, Africa and Russia as well. That’s not all – there is also the conversion of forests and agricultural land to monoculture tree plantations, with all the impacts of landgrabbing, loss of food security, and more.
How dreadful to come far enough to begin some sort of exit from coal and then to invest in a so-called solution that actually exacerbates climate change in the crucial period during which we must bring down emissions. This is more than a wasted opportunity, it’s entrenching and exacerbating the climate and biodiversity crises whilst hurting the most marginalised, structurally disadvantaged communities.
Large scale burning of forest biomass for energy is not acceptable as part of a renewable energy portfolio. Giving coal a lifeline by co-firing forest biomass with coal unites two evils.
It sure is time to go Beyond Burning. As our Biomass Delusion position statement says: we must move beyond burning forest biomass to effectively address climate change. We call on governments, financiers, companies and civil society to avoid expansion of the forest biomass based energy industry and move away from its use. Subsidies for forest biomass energy must be eliminated. Protecting and restoring the world’s forests is a climate change solution, burning them is not.