U.K. think tank questions biomass’ carbon neutrality
February 28, 2017
By
Maria Church
Feb. 28, 2017 - A London-based international affairs think tank has published a report that challenges the assumption of most renewable energy policy frameworks to treat biomass as carbon-neutral at the point of combustion.
The report from Chatham House called The Impacts of the Demand for Woody Biomass for Power and Heat on Climate and Forests, states that one of the reasons for the assumption is because “under IPCC greenhouse gas accounting rules, [biomass’] associated emissions are recorded in the land use rather than the energy sector.”
Report author Duncan Brack told Bloomberg, “Public money should only be used to subsidize technologies that genuinely reduce carbon emissions.”
The U.K. Renewable Energy Association released a statement countering the Chatham House report.
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