What’s the problem?
Since 2009, the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) has allowed Member States to subsidise energy from burning biomass. The aim was to cut emissions, but the impact has been disastrous: Member States have transformed coal power stations to burn wood, cut their own forests for fuel, and even imported trees from the USA and beyond.
This has been disastrous for the climate, forests and people’s health. The EU’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) ignores a fundamental principle: that forests are a natural carbon sink, and wood is a limited resource which is a source of carbon dioxide (when burnt). Many scientists have warned that increasing the combustion of wood is not compatible with the emergency posed by our climate breakdown: we only have a decade left to drastically limit our CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the EU’s reliance on forest biomass for renewable energy is incompatible with , its goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.