EU Finally Admits Harvesting Trees to Be Burned for Fuel is Bad
European Parliament voted to end subsidies for logging healthy, standing trees for fuel.
In an article by The Guardian titled EU limits subsidies for burning trees under renewable energy directive it is reported that the European Parliament took the first step toward ending government subsidies for harvesting healthy trees to burn as fuel which was previously touted as “climate friendly” and carbon neutral.
Harvesting healthy trees for fuel is destructive to wildlife habitat and diversity, as well as, increases carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (link).
The vote falls far short of what’s needed.
Voting on an amendment to the EU’s renewable energy directive, MEPs called to “phase down” the share of trees counted as renewable energy in EU targets. But they swerved setting any dates to reduce the burning of “primary wood”. They rejected calls for a complete phaseout of a form of energy generation that scientists have warned releases more carbon into the atmosphere than burning gas or coal.
(Emphasis added. I didn’t want you to miss that).
Scientists call for more action
More than 500 scientists last year called on EU and world leaders to end subsidies for wood burning.
“There has been a misguided move to cut down whole trees or to divert large portions of stem wood for bioenergy, releasing carbon that would otherwise stay locked up in forests,” stated the letter.
The scientists state that the large increase in carbon emissions caused by felling trees creates a “carbon debt” the world does not have time to repay. “Trees are more valuable alive than dead both for climate and for biodiversity,” they wrote.
And
The vote follows an investigation that found trees in eastern Europe’s protected forests were being chopped down and turned into wood pellets for heating.
Some of those trees were “120- to 130-year-old” according to the report cited in this article! How anybody thought this was a good idea is mind boggling.
The vote is not the final word on the subject.
The vote is just the blueprint for more wrangling by policy makers.
The vote sets the stage for negotiations between MEPs and the EU’s 27 national governments.
The final decision will be made in that negotiation. And you can be sure the wood burning interest will do everything they can to continue to push the “biomass “ mania.
The WWF and other environmental groups agree that subsidizing burning trees for fuel is foolish
Alex Mason, head of EU climate and energy policy at WWF, described the MEPs’ vote as a turning point: “For the first time, an EU institution has recognised that burning trees might not be the best way of getting off fossil fuels and stopping runaway climate change.”
Fenna Swart, director of the Clean Air Committee in the Netherlands, said the amendments were “at best a first step toward what is needed to limit the damage caused to forests in Europe and abroad” by the renewable energy directive’s “perverse” incentives. “We cannot afford to wait years before the phasedown goes into effect,” she said.
Unfortunately the governmental body refused to vote to stop growing crops for fuel
Campaigners also voiced disappointment as MEPs rejected amendments to phase out growing crops for fuel, which campaigners say puts pressure on food prices at a time of scarcity.
You should take a look at the article for more complete details.
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It seems that policymakers refuse to agree with obvious reality unless they are forced to do so.
On the one hand it is encouraging that they have admitted the obvious, but on the other hand, there are many other things that need to be admitted in order to bring policy in line with reality.
After all, “Reality is what you run into when you’re wrong.” Dallas Willard.
"Voting on an amendment to the EU’s renewable energy directive, MEPs called to “phase down” the share of trees counted as renewable energy in EU targets. But they swerved setting any dates to reduce the burning of “primary wood”. They rejected calls for a complete phaseout of a form of energy generation that scientists have warned releases more carbon into the atmosphere than burning gas or coal." Unbelievable. You just can't make this stuff up.