In adopting its position on the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (‘RED II’), the European Parliament approved a package of amendments on Wednesday 14 September, aimed at strengthening certain EU rules on bioenergy.
As detailed in our article covering the outcome of the vote (see EUROPE 13021/23), these amendments, tabled by the Renew Europe, EPP and S&D groups, relate to primary woody biomass.
In particular, they will restrict the possibility of Member States counting energy from primary woody biomass combustion towards their renewable energy targets and end direct and indirect public subsidies for such energy.
One of the main issues was therefore the definition of primary woody biomass.
According to the adopted amendments, this is “all roundwood felled or otherwise harvested and removed. It comprises all wood obtained from removals (...), including wood recovered due to natural mortality and from felling and logging. It includes all wood removed with or without bark, including wood removed in its round form, or split, roughly squared or in other form, e.g., branches, roots, stumps and burls”.
The definition goes on to state that this does not include “woody biomass obtained from sustainable wildfire prevention measures in high-risk fire prone areas, woody biomass obtained from road safety measures, and woody biomass extracted from forests affected by natural disasters, active pests or diseases to prevent their spread, whilst minimising wood extraction and protecting biodiversity”.
These exceptions are a loophole, according to the NGO Fern, which argues that burning primary woody biomass exacerbates not only the destruction of biodiversity but also the climate crisis by emitting more CO2 per unit of energy than most other fuels and by weakening terrestrial carbon sinks.
“In particular, woody biomass from forests affected by undefined ‘natural disasters’ would be excluded from the definition and therefore eligible for RED incentives such as subsidies for energy obtained by burning it” the NGO lamented. The organisation would have preferred Parliament to retain the broader definition approved by Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI).
Representing the biomass sector in Europe, the association Bioenergy Europe regretted on the contrary a “lack of support for primary woody biomass”, which risks creating “an uneven playing field with other (renewable energy) solutions”.
“Removing subsidies (for primary woody biomass), without eliminating support for fossil fuels, will send troublesome signals to the market slowing decarbonisation”, the organisation said.
Capping the inclusion of primary woody biomass
Regarding the inclusion of primary woody biomass in the renewable energy targets, the agreed amendments state that the share of energy produced from primary woody biomass should not exceed “the share of the overall energy consumption of the average of such fuel in 2017 - 2022 based on the latest available data”.
This ceiling would then be progressively reduced by 2030 on the basis of an impact assessment carried out by the Commission, the results of which should be presented no later than three years after the transposition of the revised RED Directive.
The ENVI commission proposed to exclude this form of energy from the renewable energy targets altogether.
While the NGO Fern criticised these mechanisms, preferring the option of a total exclusion, Bioenergy Europe considered that they would be “counterproductive at a time when we need to mobilise all our available resources”.
Asked by EUROPE about the criticism, a parliamentary source said the amendments were “a good compromise”, as “everyone is equally unhappy”.
He added, with regard to the forthcoming inter-institutional negotiations (‘trilogues’): “It gives Member States a warning about that all woody biomass will probably not be possible to count towards the renewables target in the future, while at the same time acknowledging the important role that biomass plays in reaching those targets, especially in the short term”.
See the text adopted by the Parliament: https://aeur.eu/f/34v (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)