{"id":4700,"date":"2021-02-04T12:57:39","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T11:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/2021\/02\/04\/stop-subsidising-the-tree-burning-industry-eu-commission-study-confirms-bioenergy-is-risky-for-climate-and-biodiversity\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T07:24:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T05:24:56","slug":"stop-subsidising-the-tree-burning-industry-eu-commission-study-confirms-bioenergy-is-risky-for-climate-and-biodiversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/2021\/02\/04\/stop-subsidising-the-tree-burning-industry-eu-commission-study-confirms-bioenergy-is-risky-for-climate-and-biodiversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop subsidising the tree-burning industry: EU Commission study confirms bioenergy is risky for climate and biodiversity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Stop subsidising the tree-burning industry: EU Commission study confirms bioenergy is risky for climate and biodiversity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As you read this article, trees and crops are being burned for energy in the name of climate action. You see, under EU law, \u201cbioenergy\u201d is supported as if it was a green, zero-carbon form of energy, which means the tree-burning industry receives billions of Euros in public subsidies \u2013 even as it destroys precious natural habitats and spews more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The EU needs to end its support for fake renewables. A new foundational <a href=\"https:\/\/publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu\/repository\/bitstream\/JRC122719\/jrc-forest-bioenergy-study-2021-final_online.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">study<\/a> published by the EU Commission\u2019s own Joint Research Centre (JRC) might just convince them to do the right thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Commission\u2019s study found that most forestry practices associated with \u201cbioenergy\u201d pose a risk to the climate, biodiversity, and often even both at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"575\" height=\"340\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Biodiversity-ecosystems-condition-assessment_JRC-report.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2720\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Among the high-risk practices is the use of \u201ccoarse woody debris\u201d. The only pathways that might be deemed acceptable are three scenarios using \u201cfine woody debris\u201d (see 3,5,7 in the table above) below a certain threshold, and two scenarios involving afforestation on former agricultural land (see 18 and 19).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is what \u201cfine woody debris\u201d looks like. Nobody collects this stuff off the forest floor to run a power station on it. Nobody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"864\" height=\"581\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/EUBioenergy_JRC-report_photo.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2722\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>In the real world, European power plants are burning millions upon millions of trees:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-3 is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><ul class=\"blocks-gallery-grid\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Biomass-plant-resource-Belgium-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2723\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Biomass-plant-resource-Belgium-scaled-1.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/?attachment_id=2723\" class=\"wp-image-2723\"\/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Biomass-plant-resource-France-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2724\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Biomass-plant-resource-France-scaled-1.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/?attachment_id=2724\" class=\"wp-image-2724\"\/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Biomass-plant-resource-Netherlands-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2725\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Biomass-plant-resource-Netherlands-scaled-1.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/?attachment_id=2725\" class=\"wp-image-2725\"\/><\/figure><\/li><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Biomass-plant-resource-Portugal-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"2726\" data-full-url=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Biomass-plant-resource-Portugal-scaled-1.jpg\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/?attachment_id=2726\" class=\"wp-image-2726\"\/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the study, around half of forest wood used for bioenergy is stemwood (wood from the main part of a tree).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They also found that there is a 20% gap between the amount of wood reported as sourced and the wood reported as used. In other words, we have no idea where 20% of the wood used in the EU comes from. This is particularly concerning given recent reports of widespread illegal forestry in several member states\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&rsquo;s high time the Commission listened to its own scientific advice: it should start protecting forests, not incentivising member states to burn them for energy. The Commission has the chance to do just that in the upcoming review of the Renewable Energy Directive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/2021\/01\/25\/burning-trees-is-not-climate-solution\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sign our #StopFakeRenewables petition<\/a> to get the Commission to do the right thing.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Photo cover: Forest Destruction in Finland \u00a9Jani Sipil\u00e4, Greenpeace<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stop subsidising the tree-burning industry: EU Commission study confirms bioenergy is risky for climate and biodiversity As you read this article, trees and crops are being burned for energy in the name of climate action. You see, under EU law, \u201cbioenergy\u201d is supported as if it was a green, zero-carbon<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-more sd-all-trans\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/2021\/02\/04\/stop-subsidising-the-tree-burning-industry-eu-commission-study-confirms-bioenergy-is-risky-for-climate-and-biodiversity\/#more-4700\">En savoir plus<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-fr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5529,"href":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4700\/revisions\/5529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eubioenergy.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}