Why the EU must phase out wood burning incentives
Humans love burning wood. Taming fire made us who we are.
But it needs to be done responsibly. In nature, fire means death before regeneration. The same fire that brings thermal bliss, cooks food and evokes cherished memories also emits toxic smoke, and can destroy whole cities and forests.
For the past two decades, the EU has adopted policies to encourage energy companies and households to switch to wood burning as an energy source, called “bioenergy” or “solid biomass fuels” in EU legislation. This has created a problem of a different magnitude.
Billions of Euros of public subsidies have driven a growth in wood burning so severe that it now threatens forests’ vital functions, the climate, energy security, and the supply of other wood-using industries. The intention behind these incentives - replacing fossil fuels - is more urgent than ever, but there simply isn’t enough wood to make this happen.
Wood is limited and must be used more wisely.
Our bioeconomy campaign suggests how to use the available wood resource better, and our continuous-cover forestry campaign outlines how to best manage forests for biodiversity, communities, rural economies and the climate. Of course, some people still need to heat their homes with wood while cleaner alternatives are developed, but the EU must end its incentives to burn wood now.
What is Bioenergy?
What is Bioenergy?
Bioenergy is the combination of the terms biomass and energy.
Bioenergy is gas, electricity or heat that comes from renewable sources, such as plant matter or animal waste.
This is known as biomass.
Biomass contains energy stored from the sun. This energy is absorbed during the photosynthesis process.
When biomass is burned, its chemical energy is released as heat.
Biomass is often burned on a local scale to heat homes and to provide heat for cooking (mainly in tropical countries), and as such is an important part of many peoples’ livelihoods.
However, bioenergy is more often spoken about in terms of the large-scale and intensive harvesting and burning of wood from forests in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Today, most biomass which is burnt for energy comes from trees, and more worryingly, from forests.
What is BioEnergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS)?
The climate emergency is becoming a climate crisis. Years of inaction means that climate scientists are no longer just discussing the need to reduce emissions, they are also talking about having to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Sometimes known as negative emissions, carbon dioxide removals are now at the centre of the climate conversation.
Governments are responding by looking for technological fixes, and one of the most often discussed is Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). But the belief that BECCS would remove emissions is based on the faulty assumption that bioenergy is carbon neutral. This is not the case. BECCS would also have massive social, environmental and economic costs. It offers the false promise of a get-out clause and must not be allowed to distract from the urgent need to stop burning fossil fuels and to protect and restore forests, soils and other ecosystems.
What are the alternatives to bioenergy and BECCS?
The alternatives to bioenergy and BECCS are surprisingly simple.
Instead of burning forests for energy, we can reduce the amounts of energy we use and invest inand subsidise local, real renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar.
The best way to achieve negative emissions is to protect and restore natural forests. This also benefits biodiversity, the climate and people. The climate benefits of restoring natural forests are tried and tested as forests already store large quantities of carbon which they have been sequestering for hundreds of millions of years. If protected and managed with the full inclusion of the people that live in and depend upon them, they can help us achieve the targets of Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals. But first we must reject a heavy reliance on negative emissions and rapidly reduce emissions from fossil fuels to zero, stop destroying ecosystems, and reduce the overconsumption of natural resources.
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