The European Commission plans to push for a "modified approach" to all forms of bioenergy, including biofuels and wood biomass, as part of its biodiversity plan to be announced on Wednesday, May 20.
EURACTICT said the EU executive is "continuously" assessing the supply of biomass demand at the EU and global level to ensure EU biomass-related policies are sustainable.
The draft policy document states that this process "will peak when the Commission announces the results of this study in relation to the sustainability of bioenergy in late 2020 and will examine the use of forest biomass, especially for energy production."
Frans Timmermans, the committee's climate director, aimed to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, and made it one of the main aspects of European green trade. The strategy is expected to focus on the preservation of the most valuable primeval forests for biodiversity and climate protection.
In a draft plan for biodiversity, the Commission said that primeval forests are the richest forest ecosystems and that they store significant amounts of carbon in places like forest soil while removing carbon from the atmosphere.
The EU executive now wants to expand its review to focus on forest biomass as well. Bioenergy is now considered a carbon neutral renewable energy source under EU law. But this is subject to change under the revised EU rules. The committee said in its plan that "the use of trees, food and feed crops produced or imported from the EU should be minimized for energy production," suggesting that biomass will no longer be viewed as carbon neutral.
The Commission has been wary of biomass energy since it learned that European Union imports of biofuels are related to deforestation outside of Europe and are worsening climate change. Two years ago, the EU decided to completely stop importing palm oil to slow deforestation in areas like Indonesia by 2030. It also decided to limit the amount of food that can meet the EU's renewable energy target in 2015. The EU's biodiversity plan states that the Commission will not lead to stringent legislation until 2021 when it will revise major EU legislation, such as the EU's renewable energy guidelines and land use, land use changes and forestry regulations (LULUCF).
Bioenergy sector instability
The leaked policy documents are already causing unrest in the bioenergy sector, which questioned the commission's goal of minimizing the use of "full trees" in energy production.
"The latter is arbitrary justice," said Jean-Marc Jossart, secretary-general of the trade association Bioenergy Europe. Restrictions on the use of feedstock do not encourage further sustainability or conservation of biodiversity but only complicate compliance with rules. "The price of the wood market already guarantees the efficient allocation of forest resources, and the bioenergy sector purchases tides, including 'low prices and other non-soldable' such as tree-top twigs. High-quality wood that is too expensive to use in the bioenergy sector is used in expensive products such as buildings and furniture."
Bioenergy sector officials expressed relief earlier this month when an EU court rejected a legal objection to recognizing biomass as a renewable energy source.
Green activists filed a lawsuit last year, claiming that "considering biomass as carbon neutral is contrary to scientific discovery," showing that burning trees generally produces 1.5 times more carbon dioxide than coal and three times more natural gas. The EU judge dismissed the case on May 6, and the court said in its ruling that it was nothing but a "personal concern" for the plaintiff.
Increased bioenergy consumption
The European Commission estimates that biomass currently accounts for nearly 60 percent of renewable energy consumption in the EU, of which 96 percent are produced in Europe.
However, it says, "In a sustainable and efficient way to optimize greenhouse gas savings and maintain ecosystem services, biomass for energy should be produced, processed and used, all of which should not result in deforestation, habitat destruction, or loss of biodiversity."
But drawing a line between good and bad biomass is unfortunately difficult. Supporters of bioenergy say that an alternative to lowering the carbon concentration level of electricity generation by up to 85% on a life cycle basis will enable the use of existing coal-fired power plants to be changed.
The U.S. biomass industry says wood pellets are supplied from sustainable managed forests because their volume has grown 21 percent since the beginning of the century in the southeastern part of the U.S. to absorb carbon. "Creating a wood product market leads to sustainable forests where biodiversity can flourish," said Seth Ginter, executive director of the American Industrial Fellitt Association.
Sustainable basis
The European Union has attached sustainability standards for biomass use in its last revision of the EU renewable energy guidelines agreed two years ago. Environmental groups, however, warned of discrepancies between the EU's bioenergy policy and long-term climate goals. "The ever-increasing use of biomass for energy, the use of land dedicated to biofuels and energy crops, directly goes against the EU's climate goals and goes against the goal of protecting and restoring the bio-space ecosystem," environmental NGOs said in a joint statement released on May 14. Last week, about 50 scientists have called for improvements in the way forest crops and bioenergy are described in the EU's climate policy.
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