Cascading of woody biomass: The tricky path from principle to policy to practice

This briefing examines the 'cascading' principle—the idea that wood should be used for its most valuable purpose for as long as possible before being used for energy. While adopted in several EU policy documents, implementation is complicated by conflicting stakeholder interests and the difficulty of defining 'value' outside of market dynamics. The author warns that rigid legislative eligibility criteria can distort markets and suggests that a combination of cross-sectoral policy measures is more effective than strict adherence to the cascading model.

• The 'cascading' principle posits that natural resources should be utilized and recycled for the longest possible duration and allocated to the most valuable purposes at every stage to maximize resource efficiency and minimize environmental stress.
• The expansion of wood-based bioenergy in the European Union has faced criticism from environmental groups, who cite risks of biodiversity loss and deforestation—particularly regarding wood pellets from the southeastern United States—and from the forest industry, which claims bioenergy incentives divert sawmill residues and low-quality roundwood from industrial use.
• Cascading has been integrated into several EU policy frameworks since 2012, including the EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the EU Forest Strategy, the EU Circular Economy package, and the directive on indirect land use change (iLUC). The iLUC directive is the first EU legislation to explicitly require raw materials for biofuels to be sourced according to the cascading principle, though it allows for considerations of local and regional technological and economic circumstances.
• Past attempts to implement cascading through 'designated eligibility'—either by specifying eligible wood assortments in law or deciding on a case-by-case basis—have been problematic. These methods often shift resource allocation power from open markets to interest groups and fail to account for the fact that the suitability of wood for industrial use often depends on market and cost structures (such as proximity to a pulp mill) rather than physical characteristics.
• Different stakeholders hold conflicting views on what constitutes a 'level playing field' regarding biomass: the renewable energy sector seeks to internalize fossil fuel external costs; the bioenergy sector wants technology-neutral support among renewables; and the biochemical and forest industries seek a level playing field between different biomass users.

APA

Olsson, O. (2017). Cascading of woody biomass: The tricky path from principle to policy to practice. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-DB-2017-Cascading-woody-biomass.pdf

Chicago

Olsson, Olle. Cascading of woody biomass: The tricky path from principle to policy to practice. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2017. https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-DB-2017-Cascading-woody-biomass.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Olsson |first1=Olle |title=Cascading of woody biomass: The tricky path from principle to policy to practice |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=2017 |url=https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-DB-2017-Cascading-woody-biomass.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{olsson2017cascading, author = {Olsson, Olle}, title = {{Cascading of woody biomass: The tricky path from principle to policy to practice}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2017}, url = {https://www.sei.org/mediamanager/documents/Publications/SEI-DB-2017-Cascading-woody-biomass.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }