A new report from the Partnership for Policy Integrity (PFPI), published on Monday 6 July, supports the applicants in the European Union Biomass Case in their decision to appeal against the EU Court of Justice’s refusal to give them access to justice.
This critical report on the sustainability criteria for biomass in the revised EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) develops the main arguments of the action brought against the EU Council and the European Parliament in March 2019 to challenge the inclusion of forest biomass for renewable energy in the RED II Directive.
This case was rejected without a hearing in May on grounds that the applicants did not have standing to sue. The lawyers who brought the case filed an appeal of the standing decision on 2 July.
The report provides a scientific and legal analysis of why, according to the claimants, the protection guaranteed by ‘sustainability’ in the RED II Directive serves as an alibi for continued logging, greenhouse gas emissions and forest damage from biomass harvesting.
“Policymakers claim the sustainability criteria in the RED II are protective, but in reality the provisions are a complicated web of words that will do nothing to stop the most damaging biomass practices that are ongoing today. Even if the criteria had any teeth, they would have little effect, as the RED II exempts the overwhelming majority of biomass burned in the EU from meeting the criteria”, comments Mary S. Booth, the Director of the PFPI who wrote the report, in a statement.
The report and the appeal are timely as the Commission reviews EU legislation or proposes new initiatives under the European Green Deal.
To read the report: https://bit.ly/2AE8RE4 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)