While the
#Dutch biomass-phaseout decision is exemplary in
#Europe, the Netherlands is still the EU's number 1 importer of
#wood pellets, nearly all of them co-fired with coal, such as the Dutch
@RWE_AG.
The Netherlands is the primary EU industrial market for wood pellets. In 2023, the Netherlands imported 2.33 million metric tons (MMT) of wood pellets with a value of $529
#million.
This is a reduction of 21 percent from the volume of 2.94 MMT reported in 2022. Reportedly, power plant outages were the main reason for this significant reduction of imports. The United States is the top supplier to the Netherlands, with a volume of 1.55 MMT, and a value of $358 million.
The Netherlands is also the second largest destination for U.S. wood pellets, after the United Kingdom and surpassing Japan, Denmark, France, and Belgium. Most of the wood pellets are used by Dutch power plants and cofired with coal. All the imported wood pellets which are used for renewable energy generation are subject to stringent sustainability requirements.
So lots of promising policy-level commitments for the future as done by the new government (
#Cabinet @MinPres ), but until the coal-and-biomass plants are actually shut down, we cannot let the energy companies, the energy lobby and those responsible for political decision-making, off the hook.
In this short
#film, the Clean Air Committee (
@comschonelucht ) provides an update of the last 6 years and discusses the problem with politicians, nature groups and the energy sector, following the documentary
#WOODFEVER (Clean Air Committee,
The first and second groups have put their heads above the parapet to keep biomass on the critical agenda, the latter continue to insist that we cannot do without biomass and BECCs to save the climate.
Crucial here is the question “Is biomass plus BECCS the long-awaited climate solution or is it a continuation of the ecological drama unfolding in forests worldwide?”
Check it out here and let us know what you think! 👇 🎬
LINK Film (10 min)
youtu.be/sIAJVIJRjZM
Source: Comite Schone Lucht2024
#BECCS #biomass #subsidies #climate #Netherlands #EU #politics #nature #ecological #economics