Debate presented in the Alting on 12 April 2021 by Claus Ekman, director, Green Transition Denmark, Caspar Olausson, head of secretariat at World's Forests, Sofie Tind Nielsen, senior forest advisor at WWF World Nature Fund Denmark, Frederik Sandby, chairman of the Climate Movement, Birgitte R. Diger , head of Global Action, Helene Hagel, climate and environmental policy leader at Greenpeace, Lasse Jesper Pedersen, climate and energy policy senior advisor at Denmark's Nature Conservation Association and Knud. N. Flensted, nature policy advisor for DOF BirdLife.

The post is also written in a letter to Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S), Climate Minister Dan Jørgensen (S) and Director General of DG Energy in the EU Ditte Juul Jørgensen

As you know, the EU's updated renewable energy directive (REDII) must be implemented in the national states by this summer 2021.

At the same time, the EU has increased the level of ambition for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU in 2030 from 40 percent to 55 percent compared to the level in 1990. In order to meet this objective, the initiatives to reduce the member states' greenhouse gas emissions must be updated, including REDII.

For many years now, researchers and other stakeholders, including the undersigned organisations, have pointed out that there is a climate trap hidden in REDII: Burning wood biomass for energy purposes.

Even if burning wood emits large amounts of CO2, it is considered in REDII as having zero CO2 emissions and is thus entitled to financial support and tax exemption. The EU has thus made burning wood economically profitable.

Demand for wood biomass puts even greater pressure on forests
According to over 500 international researchers, the current rules result in increased felling and provide an incentive both to cut down trees for energy purposes and to use a greater proportion of useful wood for energy purposes.

It is our duty to warn citizens, companies and decision-makers in the EU not to make the same mistake as us.

Claus Ekman, Casper Olausson and others., the Green Transition Denmark, World's Forests and others.

The result is a large increase in the emission of CO2 from burning, which takes from decades to centuries for the world's forests to absorb again. When we are at the same time in the middle of a climate crisis, where it is crucial that net greenhouse gas emissions are reduced sharply within a few decades, there is no time to pay off the carbon debt from burning wood biomass.

In addition, the demand for wood biomass also helps to put even greater pressure on the forests' ecosystems, which are already crowded. In order to meet the EU's own ambitions that a greater proportion of the forests must be untouched, protected and in good condition, a much greater proportion of the biomass should be left in the forests, where it functions both as a carbon store and as a habitat for thousands of species.

The demand for biomass for uses other than energy, such as building materials, advanced fuel and inputs for industry, also seems to only increase in the future. We just need to develop building materials such as insulation and wooden boards based on residual wood, including sapwood from production forests, so that these become carbon stores rather than being burned.

The EU must not make the same mistake as us
In the imminent revision of the Renewable Energy (RE) Directive, burning wood should no longer be referred to as renewable energy, and the possibility of state aid through the RE Directive should be phased out.

Dan Jørgensen himself has expressed his concern about Denmark's dependence and large consumption of wood biomass, and refers to it as a transitional technology. 

Claus Ekman, Casper Olausson and others., the Green Transition Denmark, World's Forests and others.

This ensures that these VE funds actually go towards the promotion of the renewable forms of energy that we want to be part of the future energy system, instead of investing in energy technologies that are based on burning wood and creating a lock-in to a technology we don't want.

Denmark is now faced with a large number of large investments in biomass-fired plants, which will take decades to convert to green technologies. Therefore, it is our duty to warn citizens, companies and decision-makers in the EU not to make the same mistake as us, at the same time that we ourselves prepare a plan for phasing out biomass burning.

Directive must protect and restore forests
We therefore call on both Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) and Climate Minister Dan Jørgensen (S) to assume this responsibility in communication with your colleagues in the EU and internationally. The climate minister himself has expressed his concern about Denmark's dependence and large consumption of wood biomass, and refers to it as a transitional technology.

We hope that this concern will also be expressed in the minister's work leading up to the revision of the renewable energy directive, so that we can slow down the climate and biodiversity disaster, which will continue to be based on a significant and increasing share of the EU's energy production on the burning of wood.

We will encourage the ministers to work so that the revision will turn the RE Directive towards focusing on protecting and restoring the forests, which play a decisive role in curbing both the climate and biodiversity crisis, as well as the development and investment in new technologies, where Denmark can proudly boast of being a pioneering country with ambitious projects for, among other things, large heat pumps and large heat storage facilities.