By Kenneth Richter, Bioenergy consultant at BirdLife Europe & Central Asia The Gas and Climate consortium (consortium of gas distribution companies and biogas associations arguing for more pipelines) has called on the EU to introduce a mandatory target of 10% renewable gas by 2030. It would seem astonishing to think that anybody would want a repeat […]
By Adam Colette, Program Director at Dogwood Alliance. Over the past several months, the European Union has spent huge amounts of time debating the impacts the bioenergy industry. Parliamentarians have heard loud and clear from their colleagues, scientists and civil society that burning forests for fuel is bad for our climate, forests, and communities. Yet, […]
Green Invasion By guest author Fred Pearce, author and journalist Europe’s once peaceful forests are being invaded – in the name of green energy. To meet European Union policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting renewable electricity and heating, governments from France to Romania are providing huge subsidies for the expansion of biomass burning […]
Is the EC taking bad biofuels out of the picture? By Cristina Mestre, Climate and Biofuels Officer, Transport & Environment July 20th was marked in bright red in many of our calendars. While waving some colleagues off on their long-awaited summer break, we were waiting for the launch of the European Commission’s “summer package”, Accelerating Europe’s […]
Urban biowaste, a sustainable source of bioenergy? By guest author Mariel Vilella, Associate Director/Climate, Energy and Air Pollution Programme, Zero Waste Europe Although most bioenergy is produced by burning agricultural and forestry biomass, it is also generated by burning the organic parts of municipal solid waste, biowaste or urban biomass. This includes food waste from restaurants, […]
Honeymoon is over for biomass in Flanders By guest author Sara Van Dyck, Bond Beter Leefmilieu, Belgium Looks like the biomass honeymoon is over as the skyrocketing price tag of large biomass plants has led to a U-turn in Flemish renewable energy policy. The Flemish government has just cancelled the promised subsidies for a new […]
Biofuels, doesn’t look like France is learning from mistakes By guest author Camille Dorioz, Chargé de mission agriculture, FNE and Cyrielle Denhartigh, Responsible at Agriculture et Alimentation, RAC France can be viewed as the nerve center of European biofuels production. Thanks to lobbying by the national agricultural sector and agroindustry, biofuels only continue to spread across the […]
By guest author Dr. Uwe Baumert, expert for renewable energies, Regional Deputy Chairman, NABU-Lower Saxony One can see that landscapes have been changing in Germany as wild herbs, cows and insects disappear, especially across grasslands. Why? It’s because of “corn-mania” or “maizification” which is driving the disappearance of peatland and causing degeneration of entire landscapes […]
By Ariel Brunner and Trees Robijns, BirdLife Europe – partially based on the analysis of the Commission’s Globiom study carried out by Transport & Environment (T&E) Biofuels have been promoted in Europe since the early 2000s. In the beginning, they were touted as a magic potion: saving emissions, ensuring energy security in Europe and helping farmers find […]
By Sini Eräjää, Policy Officer EU Bioenergy, Birdlife Europe and the European Environmental Bureau After many years of contemplation, the moment for the EU to decide on how to regulate bioenergy use is approaching. Today, the Commission is closing a public consultation for a new bioenergy sustainability policy and on 12th May will listen to […]