Burning Up the Carbon Sink: How the EU's Forest Biomass Policy Undermines Climate Mitigation

While burning wood for heat and electricity constitutes the largest source of renewable energy in the EU, forest biomass harvesting is weakening the EU's forest carbon sink, and some Member States have lost their net forest sink completely, including heavily forested countries like Estonia and Finland. A European Commission 2016 impact assessment for bioenergy under the EU's Renewable Energy Directive predicted the forest sink would shrink as biomass use increased, even if sustainability criteria were required. Nonetheless, the EU adopted criteria that consider “sustainable” forest biomass to have zero carbon emissions, rendering EU and UK treatment of biomass inconsistent with IPCC's Guidance for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories. Renewable energy incentives have increased biomass use for electricity generation 1100% since 1990, but residential heating, which is ungoverned by any criteria, still represents the largest use of wood for energy in the EU. Incentives for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), which is intended to deliver “negative emissions,” will likely increase pressure on forests. Although IPCC Guidance is clear that BECCS fueled with forest biomass does not remove net CO₂ from the atmosphere just because carbon has been stored belowground, EU and UK climate policies rely on large-scale deployment of BECCS to meet climate targets. Bioenergy use cuts across environmental, energy, and climate policy domains; thus, reversing the accelerating decline of the forest carbon sink will require significantly better integration of renewable energy policies with climate targets and ensuring that biomass policies are aligned with international emissions reporting. Policymakers can reduce pressure on forests by disqualifying forest biomass from counting toward renewable energy targets, reducing subsidies for wood-burning, and adopting forest management policies that prioritize carbon sequestration and biodiversity. Reducing biomass harvesting and reallocating the billions currently spent on bioenergy subsidies to solar, wind, and geothermal energy is essential for restoring forests and achieving climate targets.