EU weighs up future of wood-burning as renewable energy source

EU weighs up future of wood-burning as renewable energy source

Subject : Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context: As Europe races to replace Russian fossil fuels with cleaner power sources, EU lawmakers are weighing up the future of firewood as a renewable energy source. The debate is getting heated.

More on the News:

• The European Union’s race to rid itself of dependence on Russian fossil fuels is well underway.
• The International Energy Agency says widespread bids to beef up energy security “turbocharged” growth of green power in 2022, and EU parliamentarians hope to ramp up renewables targets to reach 45% of bloc-wide energy consumption by 2030.
• The word “renewable” often conjures up images of wind farms or solar panels — less so scenes of burning trees. But biomass, which includes firewood, plants and other organic materials, makes up 60% of the EU’s renewable energy mix according to the European Commission.

EU’s Claim:

• Because new trees can be planted after others have been chopped down, firewood gets the renewable seal of approval under EU law. That means member countries can subsidize wood burning, as long as certain sustainable sourcing rules are met.
• EU officially counts wood and other biomass as carbon neutral, based on the premise that CO2 emitted through burning will be reabsorbed by more trees in the future.
• European Parliament wants to limit subsidies for burning wood taken directly from forests, and instead restrict state support to secondary wood products like sawdust.
• European Commission promises tighter forest sustainability rules. The European Commission has also put forward plans to tighten laws on which firewood qualifies for subsidies.

Bioenergy Industry’s Claim:

• Eurelectric, an industry group representing national electricity associations and major electricity companies across Europe, said that the European Parliament proposals would “disturb the practicalities of forest management, lead to further supply shortages of sustainable biomass, and thus impair energy security and increase prices.”
• Eurelectric also argued that the suggestion to restrict subsidies could result in some wood excluded from support under proposals, to decompose on forest floors.

Environmentalist’s claim:

• Burning woody biomass also levels forests that would curb climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and storing it above and below ground, as long as the trees remain standing. Those standing forests also support significant biodiversity, which clearcut forests and replanted plantation monocultures don’t.
• 500 scientists signed a letter to world leaders last year arguing that the carbon debt from burning biomass takes 50-100 years to be repaid from replanting trees or expanding forests — time humanity doesn’t have if it is to avoid climate catastrophe.

India’s Bioenergy Programme: https://optimizeias.com/national-bioenergy-programme/