Guest blogger: Matt Williams, Climate Change Policy Officer
My final couple of weeks in the RSPB climate change team are set to be exciting, as MPs prepare to debate the UK’s Energy Bill, which will shape the energy sources used to power Britain for the next forty years. This vital piece of legislation could prove crucial in whether the UK meets its carbon reduction targets, and provides an opportunity for us to shape the way we generate our energy and reduce the impacts on nature.
It also provides an opportunity to address the increasing role of biomass, where energy is generated by burning organic material, usually wood. Using certain wastes or residues for energy can be sensible options that help to reduce emissions and meet our renewable energy targets, but not all bioenergy is a good idea - Government plans to burn wood from newly harvested trees are bad news for wildlife and the climate.
This is of particular concern to the RSPB and we, along with Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, recently published a report showing that burning whole trees in biomass power plants can be even more polluting than coal power, widely seen as the most polluting form of energy generation, and can also have a devastating impact on wildlife.
And it's not just us talking about it, the Economist have published an interesting article on the subject which you can read here.
UK demand for trees to burn will result in unsustainable pressure on forests, particularly in North America. Biodiversity rich forests there are under strain, with special wildlife such as the swallow-tailed kite and the Venus fly trap already threatened. We’ll have a blog on the dangers to this special wildlife in the coming days.
There is an overwhelming consensus between green groups and businesses that the best way to position the UK as a modern, efficient economy, attracting investment and creating jobs, while cutting carbon emissions and controlling energy prices, is to use the Energy Bill to decarbonise our electricity supply by 2030.
We are calling on the UK Government to use the Energy Bill to create a sustainable biomass sector that leads to genuine emissions reductions.
Please write to your MP today and call on them to only support sustainable biomass.
Ask them to support our vital amendments to the UK Energy Bill to help us ensure that our future energy generation is sustainable and takes the needs of wildlife and the environment into account.
Let us know if your MP replies and why not tell us what else you think the Government should be doing to make our energy system better for the climate and for wildlife, by commenting below?