Bioenergy is not new in the European energy mix. Long before the era of renewable energy policies, wood and other biomass were being used as energy sources. Although Europe has recently seen a major rise in solar and wind energy production, bioenergy still delivers the majority of what is classified as ‘renewable energy’ in the EU today. Yet bioenergy production and use has now taken a whole new direction.
Bioenergy production has until now principally relied on raw materials which are not directly used by other industries which create higher value products, or on what is locally available. However, more recently, policy mandates incentivising the use of bioenergy have turned the tables. Europe’s hunger for energy is pushing us to use crops for energy rather than for food, exploit new areas of forests and to convert natural ecosystems into biomass plantations. The energy sector is no longer at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to tapping biomass resources.
The international panel on climate change (IPCC) has warned in its recent report about the “emergent risks” related to the use of bioenergy as a mitigation strategy and about “policy shifts in developed countries favouring the expansion of large-scale bioenergy production”. The IPCC even states that high levels of biomass production (as predicted in some of its own mitigation scenarios) would have “significant implications for land use, water and energy, as well as food production and pricing” if no change in the management and operation of bioenergy production takes place.
"Biomass resources are essential to our efforts to build a European economy based on renewable resources, with demand from sectors ranging from bioplastics to construction"
Keeping in mind that the driver of the increasing bioenergy use has been EU’s climate mitigation efforts, it is quite ironic, and also worrying, that we are turning to sources of bioenergy that may not even deliver greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, at least not in the next few decades. We already know that due to the increased biomass demand, the carbon stocks of Europe’s forests are at risk of diminishing. The carbon that is released when wood is burnt today will take decades to be reabsorbed. Currently no sector is held responsible for these emissions, let alone paying back the ‘carbon debt’ accumulated.
As the world is running out of fossil resources or no longer able to use them, a return to the bio-based economy is inevitable. Biomass resources are essential to our efforts to build a European economy based on renewable resources, with demand from sectors ranging from bioplastics to construction. Ensuring that use of biomass does not exceed the limits of what the world’s ecosystems can sustainably supply should now be our highest priority. To support the burning of raw materials which would sustain the bioeconomy is a foolishness Europe can no longer afford.
As use for energy should only be a last resort for biomass use, different kinds of residues and waste from forest industries, households, food processing and agriculture are clearly the most beneficial forms of bioenergy. These are also the forms of bioenergy delivering the highest GHG savings.
Until now, EU policies have failed to support the more climate-friendly types of bioenergy, to ensure that valuable resources won’t be wasted and that the EU’s emissions savings won’t be faked through false carbon accounting. These challenges have been left to the new commissioners and the new parliament. The 2030 climate and energy framework needs to take a new approach to bioenergy use that delivers real climate mitigation and ensures that there will also be biomass left to build a bioeconomy.