Smoke and mirrors prior to MEPs’ vote on REDII
One week before the European Parliament’s vote on the new Renewable Energy Directive (REDII), the debate on solid bioenergy’s role and future contribution to meeting the EU’s renewable energy targets has been (once again) taken hostage by radical statements from a select few NGOs, writes Jean-Marc Jossart, secretary-general of AEBIOM, the European Biomass Association.
While catchy headlines, petitions and non-peer-reviewed studies might make for an efficient communication strategy, official statistics from Eurostat tell another story — one much closer to the sectoral reality.
Over the past 25 years, the stock of EU forest has increased by 7.3 billion m³, whereas the stock of available wood supply has grown by more than 5 billion m³. Only about 63% of the annual increment is used even though the amount of bioenergy consumed during the last 15 years has doubled (cf visual below).