Tens of thousands of EU citizens are dying prematurely every year as a result of exposure to air pollution from burning solid biomass, mainly wood, to provide heat and electricity. Other health impacts include cancers, cardiac and...
05/01/2018
Finland is a test case in the fight against climate change. As the world edges closer to breaching the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global temperature rises below 2 degrees, forests have become increasingly important in...
08/03/2017
A Dangerous Delusion exposes the myth that problems don’t exist with biomass from Europe’s forests – where the EU sources most of its biomass – because they are managed sustainably. It includes case studies on Sweden, Romania,...
19/10/2016
The European Commission has announced that it will propose a new and improved bioenergy sustainability policy for the use of biomass in heating, electricity and transport as part of its Climate and Energy Package for 2030.
This...
05/09/2016
There are no harmonised sustainability criteria for bioenergy or the sourcing of biomass across the European Union (EU). EU Member States have therefore largely relied on domestic Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) rules to guide...
26/07/2016
Projections of future wood availability indicate that Finnish forests should be able to provide sufficient to achieve the country’s 2020 targets for renewable energy. Beyond 2020 it is difficult to predict whether forests will be...
19/10/2012
This report looks at solid and gaseous biomass use in the Czech Republic to see whether existing legal and regulatory frameworks are sufficient to guarantee sustainable biomass production. It concludes that to achieve responsible...
There are currently no sustainability standards for biomass production in Bulgaria at either national or EU level. Meanwhile interest is growing in new biomass plants, boilers, and combined heat and power (CHP) plants. This report...
This new report shows that the quantity of wood required to satisfy the European Union’s 20-20-20 target is likely to be too large to be met by increased production within the EU. Member States will have to rely on importing wood...
14/09/2011
This report looks at the possible benefits of biomass use and considers the levels of biomass that may be available. It also discusses in detail the meaning of sustainable biomass and the practices that have a high risk of...
29/09/2010