\u201cNot all biomass is good biomass,\u201d says Jennifer Jenkins, chief sustainability officer at Enviva, a US-based company which is the world\u2019s largest producer of industrial wood pellets used for electricity and heat production.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe agree that not all biomass should automatically be categorised as carbon neutral,\u201d Jenkins told an online debate organised on 29 June during EU sustainable energy week.<\/p>\n
To bring climate benefits, biomass needs to come from low-value wood residues or smaller trees coming from timber harvests \u2013 not from high-value trees that could be used in products like furniture or construction material, Jenkins said.<\/p>\n
The question now facing policymakers in Brussels is how to ensure EU energy policies do not encourage the wrong sort of biomass, even inadvertently.<\/p>\n
Biomass currently represents almost 60% of the EU\u2019s renewable energy, more than solar and wind power combined, according to the EU\u2019s statistical office, Eurostat.<\/p>\n
And even though wind and solar are growing fast, countries such as Austria, Denmark, Finland, Latvia and Sweden would be unable to achieve their 2020 renewable energy targets without biomass, experts say.<\/p>\n
\u201cBioenergy is basically the backbone for these countries\u2019\u201d renewable energy policies, said Martin Junginger, a professor of energy and resources at Utrecht University who spoke at the online event.<\/p>\n
EU bioenergy review<\/p>\n
The future of bioenergy in Europe is looking uncertain, however.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the European Commission announced it would perform a comprehensive assessment of biomass supply and demand in Europe and globally with a view to \u201censure that EU biomass-related policies are sustainable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe overall objective is to ensure that EU regulatory framework on bioenergy is in line with the increased ambition set out in the European Green Deal,\u201d the Commission said in its biodiversity strategy, published on 20 May.<\/p>\n
Among other things, the biodiversity plan aims to protect primary and old-growth forests, which \u201ckeep removing carbon from the atmosphere, while storing significant carbon stocks,\u201d the EU paper said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe use of whole trees and food and feed crops for energy production \u2013 whether produced in the EU or imported \u2013 should be minimised,\u201d the policy paper added.
\nEU plans sweeping bioenergy review by end 2020
\nThe European Commission intends to push a \u201ctransformative approach\u201d to all forms of bioenergy \u2013 including biofuels and woody biomass \u2013 as part of a biodiversity strategy due to be unveiled on Wednesday (20 May).<\/p>\n
But sorting out \u201cgood\u201d from \u201cbad\u201d biomass is notoriously tricky.<\/p>\n
Last year, a group of climate activists filed a lawsuit against the European Union to challenge the notion that forest biomass is carbon neutral, a principle which is currently enshrined in the bloc\u2019s renewable energy directive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe treatment of biomass as carbon neutral runs counter to scientific findings\u201d showing that burning wood for energy typically emits 1.5 times more CO2 than coal and 3 times more than natural gas, the plaintiffs claimed.<\/p>\n
The European Court of Justice dismissed the case in May this year, saying the activists had failed to demonstrate how the directive was of \u201cindividual concern\u201d to them.<\/p>\n
Still, the Commission appeared to give credit to the plaintiffs, saying its bioenergy review will include new \u201coperational guidance\u201d on the\u00a0sustainability criteria for forest biomass currently laid down in the EU\u2019s renewable energy directive.<\/p>\n
Timeframe<\/p>\n
So how could policymakers distinguish \u201cgood\u201d from \u201cbad\u201d biomass? According to some experts, one way could be to contrast the impact of biomass on global carbon stocks in the short and long term.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you burn biomass, then of course there is CO2 being emitted,\u201d said Junginger, adding that from that point of view, biomass \u201ccritics have a point\u201d and that climate scientists are concerned about the immediate CO2 emissions, which can be \u201cup to twice more than natural gas\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, what critics fail to acknowledge is the long-term positive effects of biomass on the climate, Junginger added, saying bioenergy from sustainably managed forests is carbon neutral in the long run because trees re-absorb carbon dioxide as they grow.<\/p>\n
\u201cUltimately within two or three decades, even the lesser sustainable kinds of biomass will have repaid their carbon debt and perform better than fossil fuels,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n
For him, the choice to rely on biomass therefore depends more on the timeframe in which policymakers place themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf within ten years, we have to decarbonise everything, then yes, biomass is not a very attractive option\u201d because of the \u201ccarbon debt\u201d that biomass creates for the coming decades, Junginger said.<\/p>\n
But if policymakers consider that climate change is \u201ca matter of decades and centuries\u201d then biomass has a role to play in mitigating climate change, he claimed.<\/p>\n
The timeframe criteria does not necessarily speak in favour of biomass. In November last year, the European Parliament declared a \u201cclimate emergency\u201d, calling on the Commission and member states \u201cto urgently take the concrete action needed in order to fight and contain this threat before it is too late\u201d.<\/p>\n
According to UN scientists, the coming 10 years will be critical to ensure the world stays on track with the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit global warming to well below 2C, and aim for 1.5C.<\/p>\n
To hold warming to this limit, carbon pollution must fall to \u2018net zero\u2019 by 2050, according to scientists at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
\nEuropean Parliament declares climate emergency
\nThe European Parliament voted by a large majority on Thursday\u00a0 (28 November) in favour of a resolution declaring climate emergency in Europe, piling pressure on the EU\u2019s new\u00a0 Commission to deliver an ambitious European Green Deal after it takes office next month.<\/p>\n
The idea that biomass could be discriminated based on timeframe is making the bioenergy sector cringe, though. According to Enviva\u2019s Jennifer Jenkins, biomass brings immediate benefits as long as it comes from \u201cworking forests\u201d, whose tree stocks are \u201cstable or increasing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would argue the benefits are immediate, we don\u2019t need to worry about the short versus long term time frame,\u201d Jenkins argued.<\/p>\n
To her, land use change is a more relevant criteria to measure sustainability. In order to bring climate benefits, biomass \u201cneeds to come from a working forest that is returned to forests after harvest \u2013 not from forests that are converted to agriculture\u201d or other uses after trees are felled, she said.<\/p>\n
\u2018Transitions\u2019 in biomass use<\/p>\n
Another potential way to manage the climate impact of biomass is to prioritise the sectors in which it should be used in priority.<\/p>\n
\u201cSustainable biomass is scarce,\u201d said Martin Junginger. \u201cSo we have to think cleverly where we want to deploy it,\u201d he added, citing hard-to-abate sectors of industry and transport as areas where scarce biomass resources could be put to best use.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment we use biomass mainly for low-temperature heating \u2013 so, for heating houses,\u201d Junginger pointed out, saying this was \u201cnot very clever\u201d because other solutions like insulation or heat pumps are more efficient.<\/p>\n
Instead, he said biomass should be used in priority \u201cfor industrial purposes which are harder to decarbonise,\u201d as well as heavy-duty road transport, shipping and aviation where biofuels can provide an alternative to hydrocarbon-based fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
Another transition is the way biomass is used for electricity. \u201cWith intermittent wind and solar,\u201d biomass is well positioned to provide peak load instead of base load, Junginger said.<\/p>\n
Biomass played \u201ca substantial role\u201d in the coal-free run that the UK electricity sector enjoyed in May and June this year, said Rebecca Heaton, head of climate change at Drax, a British power station running on biomass and coal.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the grid will be predominantly solar and wind\u201d in the future, but biomass can help \u201cwhen the wind doesn\u2019t blow and the sun doesn\u2019t shine,\u201d Heaton said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cNot all biomass is good biomass,\u201d says Jennifer Jenkins, chief sustainability officer at Enviva, a US-based company which is the world\u2019s largest producer of industrial wood pellets used for electricity and heat production. \u201cWe agree that not all biomass should automatically be categorised as carbon neutral,\u201d Jenkins told an online debate organised on 29 June […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572,5571],"tags":[13556,5842,11857],"supplier":[10333,5585],"class_list":["post-76785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","category-co2-based","tag-bioenergy","tag-biomass","tag-sustainable","supplier-enviva","supplier-european-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76785","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76785"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=76785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}