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Matt Williams
Bioenergy can play an important role in decarbonising energy systems. However, over recent years evidence has made it increasingly clear that this role needs to be limited. This is because certain types of bioenergy can result in substantial risks to nature and wildlife and in fact offer only meagre emissions savings, or perhaps even increase emissions over the medium term relative to fossil fuels.
At the EU level, to date, there have been no sustainability criteria for biomass used for heat and electricity. However, criteria have been introduced for biofuels – the liquid fuels that replace petrol and diesel. This is in recognition of the environmental risks associated with some of these fuels.
The EU now plans to address this discrepancy and later this year will publish proposed bioenergy sustainability criteria that would apply to biomass used for heat and power too. So, colleagues in European NGOs have today published what kinds of principles and policies they think these criteria could include.
While the result of the referendum was a vote to leave the EU, and so these criteria may never apply to the UK’s use of bioenergy, there are some very useful ideas contained within this NGO policy proposal. The RSPB's recent Energy Vision report does see a role for bioenergy in the UK's future energy mix. And the UK Government is currently considering its plans for how to reduce emissions in the future. It should look carefully at the role of bioenergy and at the policies that have been put in place to date that, in some cases, have resulted in harm to the environment or failed to guarantee emissions reductions.
In fact, the UK’s sustainability criteria for bioenergy could be based on similar principles and policies, namely:
i. All emissions from biomass should be fully accounted for
At present, only emissions from transportation and production of biomass are counted. When the biomass itself is burned, it is counted as zero carbon. Overwhelming scientific evidence now shows that this ‘carbon neutral assumption is wrong’. All of these emissions should be counted, or used as a proxy to rule out the highest carbon risk forms of biomass.
ii. A cap on bioenergy in line with available sustainable supply
Bioenergy, unlike wind or solar, comes from limited sources of biogenic materials that very often rely upon availability of land and can compete with other uses or benefits – such as habitats for wildlife. Therefore, any use of biomass for energy must start from an assessment of what is sustainably available and then cap use at that level.
iii. Stronger environmental sustainability standards
The UK is one of the few countries to have sustainability criteria for bioenergy already. However, these criteria are too weak in order to guarantee protection to the natural environment. I saw some of the environmental impacts that are wrought under the current system when I visited the US myself earlier this year. Far stronger criteria are needed in order to protect vulnerable wildlife and habitats.
iv. Optimum use of limited biomass resources
The materials that are used for bioenergy sometimes compete with other uses elsewhere in the economy. Reuse and recycling of materials should be maximised, in line with the principles of ‘cascading use’ before materials are burned for energy.
The new paper builds on these four principles and suggests specific policy measures that the EU could adopt in order to ensure the best kinds of biomass are used for energy in the best possible ways. Its policy proposals are:

* Adopt an EU-wide limit on the amount of bioenergy used to meet the EU’s 2030 climate and energy targets, including a phase out of biofuels from food and energy crops;

* Exclude high-risk biomass sources such as biomass from protected areas, stumps and roundwood and crops from agricultural land (unless evidence is provided that this enhances their environmental conditions);

* Limit the extraction of agricultural and forest residues;

* Ensure that biomass for energy doesn’t displace other existing uses of the biomass and is in line with the principles of cascading use and the waste hierarchy;

* Ensure affected communities’ Free Prior and Informed Consent, respect of their human, labour and land rights in the production and use of biomass for energy;

* Introduce a minimum efficiency threshold for energy installations and fuel manufacturing producing bioenergy or biofuels.

These policies would clearly need tweaking for a UK context. For example, the UK's woodlands are quite different from those on the European mainland and there may be some cases, such as on RSPB nature reserves, where using roundwood from trees for energy makes sense because it benefits wildlife. However, they are a useful springboard into a discussion about what kinds of policies should be applied to safeguard nature and the climate.

Right now it is clear that existing criteria in the UK are not guaranteeing environmental protection or genuine emissions reductions.

Matt Williams, Assistant Warden, RSPB Snape.