'The European Commission has signalled that it will be reviewing the role of wood as a form of renewable energy, both as part of the biodiversity strategy and as part of the reopening of the renewable energy directive.
This is welcome since, as the European Science Academies have frequently highlighted, “serious mismatches exist between science and policy in bioenergy”.
Denmark and the Netherlands are among the largest importers of wood pellets in Europe and there is a lively debate in both countries around how to reduce dependence on wood burning, based on the evidence both that burning wood for heat and power is highly likely to increase atmospheric concentrations of CO2 over decades and also that increased harvesting contributes to biodiversity loss and increased air pollution.
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Wood emits more CO2 per MWh even than coal – as noted by the IPCC – which is why most environmentalists and scientists think that it takes several decades for plant regrowth to reabsorb the carbon emitted “in one pulse” from wood burning.
This is obviously way too long to hit the targets of the Paris Agreement. So, it makes very little sense that most forest biomass is considered a ‘carbon-neutral’ energy source.
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This chimes with the recommendations of the
Dutch Social and Economic Council (which consists of trade unions, employer organisations, and NGOs) that advises the Dutch government and to which one of the present authors, Peter de Jong, has contributed.
Earlier this year, the SEC called for a complete phase-out of wood burning for power, heat and road transport as soon as possible..
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And there is real political momentum building in civil society for a genuine plan to wean Denmark off wood burning as quickly as feasible.'
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EU should support efforts in Denmark and Netherlands to stop wood-burning, November 6, 2021
Context Estimate: October, 2025 – Safire Plasma (fusion) Reactors commercially available – Abundance - '..the legislation on Fusion Energy Research and Development passed..' - (Global Healing 2020 - 2050)(Fusion Energy) - Total Transformation'..Shockingly, recent figures show that “the use of wood in domestic combustion activities accounted for 38 per cent of PM2.5 emissions in 2018.” '(BBC) - Ella Kissi-Debrah: Air pollution a factor in girl's death, inquest finds'A New Scientist review in 2017 concluded that “log-burning stoves are harming our health and speeding up global warming”.'How air pollution is destroying our health - WHO'Most countries don’t take it seriously enough and aren’t doing enough given the scale of the harm that air pollution is doing to all of our health.''..82% of UK drivers want gas cars phased out earlier than 2035'(Sustainable Agriculture) - The Rapid Emergence of Plasma Agriculture(Electric Universe - SAFIRE - 2019) - 'All the evidence to date points to electricity as the primal force in nature.'