{"id":117183,"date":"2022-10-19T07:23:00","date_gmt":"2022-10-19T05:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/?p=117183"},"modified":"2022-10-14T11:55:39","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T09:55:39","slug":"berlin-kickstarts-process-to-inspire-biomass-strategies-across-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/berlin-kickstarts-process-to-inspire-biomass-strategies-across-the-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin kickstarts process to inspire biomass strategies across the EU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n

The German government published the framework for its biomass strategy on Tuesday (6 October) which aims to\u00a0solve the conflict between biomass use versus electrification, guarantee food security and set standards for strategies in other EU countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"As
As the competition between food and feedstock use against using it as energy picks up, the German government hopes to set an EU-wide standard. [ANDREAS GORA \/ POOL]<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Biomass, the workhorse of the EU\u2019s green transition, currently makes up nearly 60% of all European renewable energy<\/a>\u2013 more than solar and wind power combined. As the competition between using it as food and feedstock versus energy picks up, the German government hopes to set an EU-wide standard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBiomass \u2013 e.g. wood, energy crops or organic waste \u2013 is a resource that is in great demand and also indigenous,\u201d explained Robert Habeck, the green minister of economy and climate action, on Thursday (6 October).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside Habeck, the German environment and agriculture ministers, both of whom are Greens too, presented a united front. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe National Biomass Strategy<\/a> is an important instrument for making sustainably produced biomass usable in a targeted and system-serving manner and for securing its potential,\u201d noted Agriculture Minister Cem \u00d6zdemir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, the goal is to \u201cdetermine how much sustainably extracted and produced biomass is available,\u201d highlighting the need for its \u201cefficient cascade utilisation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking into account EU policy processes, without getting concrete, their strategy aims  to guide the way for other EU countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor the EU, the strategy also provides an example of how European climate protection and environmental goals can best be achieved together,\u201d Habeck said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A \u2018burning\u2019 question<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Biomass policy is highly controversial, as it plays a pivotal role in Nordic countries\u2019 economies. In Finland, forestry products make up around 20% of the total export balance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, the German strategy wants to respect, \u201cas imports of biogenic energy sources and raw materials currently play an important role and import incentives also lead to effects in the countries of origin,\u201d the government paper reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In countries like Finland and Sweden, the heaviest biomass users and major exporters, biomass is largely burned in centralised and efficient combined heat-and-power plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most biomass is used in Germany as pellets for individual heaters, which tends to be less efficient. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, biomass was burned to generate 171.5 Terawatt hours<\/a> (TWh) of heat, amounting to 37% of total renewable energy in Germany, and 50 TWh of electricity, amounting to 11%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the strategy also aims to calm worries that the use of biomass for energy could crowd out food production and thus be harmful to food security and affordability by enshrining a \u201cfood first\u201d principle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In practice, food security concerns shall always be considered first to determine how much land and biomass can sustainably be used otherwise, the strategy says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biomass versus electrification<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The debate around competition between using finite land and biomass for food, feed or energy production lately came to the fore again in the context of the Ukraine war and its impact on agricultural markets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the face of \u201cfar-reaching impacts of Russia\u2019s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine for global food security\u201d a \u201cresponsible and foresighted use of our natural resources is more important than ever,\u201d \u00d6zdemir stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, environmental NGO WWF welcomed the step to establish a hierarchy of different biomass uses. \u201cFood supply and material use have to come above energy use,\u201d the organisation\u2019s agriculture and land use campaigner, Johann Rathke, stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he noted the push came \u201cway too late\u201d to tackle issues around using wood and biomass as an energy source already this winter. For many Germans, heating with wood and biomass is seen as an important alternative to pricey gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the bioenergy industry was less than happy with the paper. With biomass a limited good, the strategy notes that \u201cthe most efficient decarbonisation option in the long term should always be chosen.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the government, \u201cas a rule, these are the electric or electricity-based technologies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The association warns that \u201cpriority should not be given to material [feedstock] use over energy use.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The German government published the framework for its biomass strategy on Tuesday (6 October) which aims to\u00a0solve the conflict between biomass use versus electrification, guarantee food security and set standards for strategies in other EU countries. Biomass, the workhorse of the EU\u2019s green transition, currently makes up nearly 60% of all European renewable energy\u2013 more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"\u201cBiomass \u2013 e.g. wood, energy crops or organic waste \u2013 is a resource that is in great demand and also indigenous,\u201d explained Robert Habeck, the green minister of economy and climate action, on Thursday","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[6630,5842,5627,12518,6268],"supplier":[6286,279,769,5585,330],"class_list":["post-117183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-agriculture","tag-biomass","tag-energy","tag-feedstocks","tag-forestry","supplier-bundesministerium-ernahrung-landwirtschaft","supplier-bundesministerium-fuer-umwelt-naturschutz-und-reaktorsicherheit","supplier-deutsche-bundesregierung","supplier-european-union","supplier-world-wide-fund-for-nature-wwf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117183\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117183"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=117183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}