Last week the European Academies Science Advisory Council (EASAC) – a group long opposed to renewable wood bioenergy – issued a press release claiming that the technology “will accelerate climate warming” and “is not compatible with the need to tackle the climate crisis urgently.” Their press release essentially re-stated the points of a report the group released back in August.
But are EASAC’s claims true? According to a new report from the bioenergy program at the International Energy Agency (IEA), EASAC has made “several errors, half-truths and generalization” in its analysis, and that EASAC “overlooks several important roles for bioenergy in climate change mitigation.” IEA Bioenergy’s position that renewable wood energy is beneficial to the environment, in contrast to fossil fuels like coal, is supported by leading scientists from around the world as well as the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
According to IEA Bioenergy, EASAC makes a fundamental error in their analysis by falsely claiming that biomass power generation results in an accounting loophole for carbon emissions. In fact, wood bioenergy is counted for in the land use sector in order to avoid double-counting. IEA Bioenergy explains:
The EASAC press release claims that there is an accounting loophole as imported biomass is treated as zero emissions when burned. Under the agreed approach for preparation of national GHG inventories, countries report harvest of forests as a CO2 emission in the land use sector. CO2 emissions from combustion of biomass for energy are excluded in the energy sector to avoid double counting with the land use sector. Thus, there is no accounting error that requires correction, or emission that is overlooked…
EASAC also falsely claims that wood bioenergy is not renewable. As IEA Bioenergy explains, this claim is categorically false on its face, as “forest biomass is by definition renewable if it is harvested from forests that are managed such that there is no loss of productive capacity – i.e., so that growth/harvest cycles can continue indefinitely and capacity to sequester carbon is not diminished.” Wood bioenergy sourced from the US South is managed in such a way and is thus renewable.
EASAC also continues to advance the false narrative that bioenergy is worse than coal because it releases more CO2 at the point of combustion. As IEA Bioenergy points out, this is a false comparison – burning coal releases carbon that has been stored in the ground for millions of years. Bioenergy deals with short-term biogenic carbon, resulting in no net transfer of carbon to the atmosphere. This distinction is part of the reason why wood bioenergy is a far more environmentally-sound energy source than coal, according to IEA Bioenergy:
There is a fundamental difference between fossil fuels and biomass: burning fossil fuels releases carbon that has been locked up in the ground for millions of years, while burning biomass emits carbon that is part of the biogenic carbon cycle. In other words, fossil fuel use increases the total amount of carbon in the biosphere-atmosphere system, while bioenergy systems operate within this system; if forest carbon stock is maintained there is no net transfer of carbon to the atmosphere.
EASAC also tries to undermine the environmental credentials of bioenergy by pointing to the fact that supply chains – including shipping of wood pellets across the world – use fossil fuels. While this is true, it ignores the fact that shipping other forms of energy across the world – such as coal – has similar, if not greater, supply chain emissions.
As IEA Bioenergy notes, “The most important climate change mitigation measure is to transform energy and transport systems so that we can leave fossil carbon in the ground.” This is why leading scientists and the UN IPCC have embraced renewable wood bioenergy as a low carbon replacement to coal that helps make a renewable energy future possible.
Anti-bioenergy activists, including EASAC, paint a picture that wood bioenergy is carbon-intensive and contributes to deforestation. But as IEA Bioenergy concludes, this picture “is misleading”:
Forest biomass for bioenergy is typically obtained from forests managed for multiple purposes, including production of pulp and saw logs, and provision of other ecosystem services… When bioenergy from the forest displaces fossil fuels, this adds to the climate benefits of managed forestry.
IEA Bioenergy was set up by the International Energy Agency in 1978 with the goal of improving cooperation and information exchange between countries that have national programs in bioenergy research, development and deployment. Overall, the IEA acts as energy policy advisor to 28 Member Countries plus the European Commission, in their efforts to ensure reliable, affordable, and clean energy for their citizens.