Debate entry published in Information on 1 September 2020 by Annika Lund Gade, project worker, Green Transition Denmark, Frederik Sandby, chairman, Climate Movement in Denmark, Gry Bossen, political coordinator, Verdens Skoe, Helene Hagel, climate and environmental policy manager, Greenpeace, Lasse Jesper Pedersen, climate and energy policy advisor, Denmark's Nature Conservation Association and Sofie Tind Nielsen, senior forest advisor, WWF World Nature Fund

The problems with burning wood biomass for energy are many and by now well known. Some of the problems are found in the production of biomass, while others lie in our consumption.

A large and increasing demand for wood biomass puts a lot of pressure on the forests we need to absorb CO₂ out of the atmosphere if we are to have any hope of curbing the climate crisis, and provides an incentive for a biological exhaustion of forests and felling of old, large trees with important biodiversity value.

In addition, burning wood biomass emits CO₂. Whether this will be matched by similar intakes elsewhere depends on many unknowns over which we have far too little control today, and in the worst cases the emissions correspond to those we know from coal. Still, the burning of wood is counted as zero in the climate accounts that Denmark reports to the UN and the EU every year.

We cannot continue to use biomass in the quantities we do, and we must make far greater demands on the biomass we must continue to use.

There is a great need for ambitious, legally binding criteria for the wood-based biomass used for energy production in Denmark. A number of green organizations have presented a list of criteria  for responsible production of wood biomass, which we encourage climate minister Dan Jørgensen (S) to use for its legal requirements for biomass , which was proposed on Tuesday last week in connection with the implementation of the updated EU directive for renewable energy.

Our criteria must ensure that only residual products from responsibly managed (FSC-certified) timber production are used. That CO is under control₂- the emissions throughout the value chain. That Denmark only imports biomass from countries with ambitious, binding climate targets that account for CO₂-discharges in connection with felling trees and extraction of biomass. That the forest management associated with biomass production takes into account the biodiversity in the forest.

Finally, the criteria should apply to all consumption of biomass. Deforestation in Eastern Europe is no less harmful if the wood is burned on a residential road or in an industrial plant. Requirements should also be made for the estimated third of the wood biomass that does not come from forests, but which originates from, among other things, living fences and small biotopes in the landscape.

At the same time as the introduction of legal requirements for the production of biomass, it is imperative that there is a targeted reduction in the Danish consumption of wood-based biomass in particular, as compliance with forest management criteria will never be able to guarantee that the amount of biomass consumption is sustainable.

Away from wood

For more than ten years, politicians, the Danish Energy Agency and the energy sector have referred to wood-based biomass as a transitional fuel. But now the alternatives are becoming market-ready in the form of, among other things, large heat pumps, pond heat storage, surplus heat from waste incineration and industry, solar heating systems, geothermal energy as well as energy renovation and energy efficiency, which can already replace a large part of the biomass. It is important to ensure that favorable terms for the wood-based biomass in the form of, among other things, tax exemptions and state aid do not stand in the way of this transition.

It is time to boost the green transition towards a heat supply that does not depend on such a precious resource as wood, which will increasingly be in demand in other sectors for use with higher value, for example building materials and fuels for long-distance shipping and airplanes.

Since biomass burning also results in, among other things, opaque CO₂emissions, decline in biodiversity and air pollution, biomass should be taxed. This can be done in several ways, for example as a general tax on the biomass resource or as a tax on the emissions measured at the chimney. This provides an economic incentive to limit the consumption of biomass and invest in new green technology instead.

The green transition must take place on a well-informed and responsible basis. A phasing-out plan for biomass in the electricity and heat supply is therefore needed.

Biomass burning should be phased out to an absolute minimum by 2040, and reduced as much as possible by 2030, with a focus on wood-based biomass. New biomass-fired power plants have a typical lifespan of 20-40 years. Therefore, we must already stop building new, large biomass plants and convert existing biomass plants when they are renovated in the future.

With a responsible phase-out plan, Denmark can once again become a green leading country, and with a clear conscience warm up with green energy on even the coldest winter day.