Wiser with Wood MAKING EUROPE WORK FOR PEOPLE & FORESTS

The document argues that treating wood burning as renewable energy has led to forest degradation, high CO2 emissions, and public health risks. It outlines the legal requirements of RED III and urges Member States to use their discretion to phase out biomass subsidies, implement the cascading principle, and adopt stricter sustainability criteria to protect European forests and the climate.

• The EU's policy of classifying woody biomass as renewable energy has significantly increased emissions; direct biomass emissions in 2020 reached 597.6 million tonnes of CO2, which is nearly equivalent to the emissions of the entire German economy.
• The woody biomass industry relies heavily on public funds, with subsidies totaling €16 billion in 2020 and an additional estimated €12 billion in lost revenue due to the Emissions Trading System (ETS) exemption, totaling approximately €28 billion annually.
• Biomass incentives have distorted wood markets, increasing the proportion of the EU wood harvest used for energy from 42% in 2005 to over 50% today, which disadvantages other higher-value industries like wood panel, pulp, paper, and furniture manufacturing.
• RED III introduces the 'cascading principle,' requiring Member States to prioritize wood use in a specific order: wood-based products, extending service life, re-use, recycling, bioenergy, and finally disposal.
• Direct financial support is now banned for electricity-only biomass plants, except for those in 'just transition regions,' outermost regions, or those using Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS).
• RED III prohibits direct financial support for energy produced from specific feedstocks, including saw logs, veneer logs, industrial grade roundwood, roots, and stumps.
• The directive establishes 'no-go zones' for biomass extraction to protect high-biodiversity areas (such as primary and old-growth forests) and high-carbon stock lands (such as wetlands and peatlands).
• Member States must ensure that domestic forest biomass production is consistent with their 2030 LULUCF (Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry) targets to ensure emissions in the land use sector do not exceed removals.
• The document warns that derogations for 'outermost regions' (such as French Guiana, Martinique, and the Azores) could be misused to source non-compliant biomass, potentially threatening primary Amazonian forests.
• To prevent long-distance biomass imports with high supply chain emissions, the guide suggests Member States adopt a greenhouse gas savings threshold of 96%, similar to a 2018 UK requirement.

APA

Pigeon, M., & Łuszczek, R. (2024). Wiser with Wood MAKING EUROPE WORK FOR PEOPLE & FORESTS. ClientEarth. https://www.clientearth.org/media/rftff5jg/en_wiser-with-wood_final4.pdf

Chicago

Pigeon, M., and R. Łuszczek. Wiser with Wood MAKING EUROPE WORK FOR PEOPLE & FORESTS. ClientEarth, 2024. https://www.clientearth.org/media/rftff5jg/en_wiser-with-wood_final4.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Pigeon |first1=M. |last2=Łuszczek |first2=R. |title=Wiser with Wood MAKING EUROPE WORK FOR PEOPLE & FORESTS |publisher=ClientEarth |date=March 2024 |url=https://www.clientearth.org/media/rftff5jg/en_wiser-with-wood_final4.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{pigeon2024wiser, author = {Pigeon, M. and Łuszczek, R.}, title = {{Wiser with Wood MAKING EUROPE WORK FOR PEOPLE \& FORESTS}}, institution = {ClientEarth}, year = {2024}, month = mar, url = {https://www.clientearth.org/media/rftff5jg/en_wiser-with-wood_final4.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }