Biodiesel: a cure worse than the fossil disease By Lisa Benedetti, BirdLife Europe Biodiesel is the most consumed biofuel in Europe. It is projected to make up almost 70% of the EU biofuels market by 2020. This dependence poses some questions, so the European Commission is now considering what its
Bioenergy and social injustice in southeastern US By guest author Linde Zuidema, Bioenergy Campaigner, Fern “Communities were not informed nor consulted about this wood pellet facility, the process was everything but transparent. All is decided behind closed doors, and all they tell us is lies, lies, lies. The County claims
Many trees, but few forests in the southern US By Sini Eräjää, Policy Officer EU Bioenergy, Birdlife Europe and the European Environmental Bureau “There are still some trees down here but there’s all the time less forests” said a shopkeeper in the town of Ahoskie in North Carolina. He was sitting
A story unfolding, EU energy policy and American forests By Sini Eräjää, Policy Officer EU Bioenergy, Birdlife Europe and the European Environmental Bureau I never would have thought that in the early days of the EU’s efforts to increase renewable energy use that working in this field would take me to forests along
Co-firing with biomass compared to other renewables By guest author Geert Warringa, CE Delft Co-firing is the combustion of two different types of material at the same time for energy production. In the Netherlands, co-firing coal with biomass is one of the options for meeting their 14% renewables target. However,
Can biogas be green? Organic Denmark shows the way By Lisa Benedetti, BirdLife Europe Despite costing taxpayers more than 50 billion euro annually, and despite attempts to make it greener, the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) still supports farming practices that dirty Europe’s waters, are hard on soils and threaten
Massachusetts has some lessons for Europe about bioenergy By guest author Bram Claeys, currently Climate & Energy Adviser at an international environmental NGO, previously Deputy Director Renewable Energy at the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources Now that the European Commission has an open consultation about the need for sustainability criteria
Wood pellet travel from North American forests to Belgian furnaces Check out Greenpeace Belgium’s nifty tool which demonstrates the potential dangers and questionable sustainability of wood pellets that are being used to fuel power plants in Belgium by companies like Electrabel, RWE and E.ON. The tool traces all the different steps, from wood
Ecological and economical nonsense of new large-scale biomass plants in Belgium By guest author Sara Van Dyck, Bond Beter Leefmilieu, Belgium Today, biomass plays an important role in Belgium’s renewable electricity supply. But Belgian governments have just pledged more money towards new large-scale biomass plants even though a recent study clearly
New Year’s resolution: let’s have a sustainable biofuels policy by Cristina Mestre, Shipping and Fuels Officer, Transport & Environment WHAT I KNOW IN 2016 THAT I DIDN’T KNOW IN 2015: As a newbie at T&E, it’s a challenge to summarise all I’ve learned about the biofuels story in the past
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