Institute for European Environmental Policy report challenges “misleading” biomass GHG accounting

The Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) has reviewed current thinking about the life cycle analysis conventions for bioenergy (and woody biomass in particular) and found that the routinely used metrics are “increasingly recognised as flawed”.  “This applies particularly to commonly used approaches to life cycle analysis that presume carbon neutrality of the bioenergy feedstock,” the Institute says.

Without a better system for evaluating the greenhouse gas impacts of our policies, they conclude, we cannot know if (or when) our bioenergy use might actually cut greenhouse gas emissions. Continue reading “Institute for European Environmental Policy report challenges “misleading” biomass GHG accounting”

Biomass: the heat is on – column in CIBSE journal

An opinion piece I co-wrote with Sofie Pelsmakers (author of The Environmental Design Pocketbook) appears in the February 2013 issue of the CIBSE Journal.

We look at the carbon footprint from biomass burning (high, even according to DECC) and point out the unintended consequences of well-intentioned planning requirements for ‘renewables’ and ‘sustainability’ –  that lead to biomass plant eating up the budget, efficiency being sidelined, and CO2 emissions being high instead of low.

Read the article here: Biomass – the heat is on

Sofie and I also wrote a longer version for the AECB ‘Soapbox’ column – here:

Biomass heat: facing the carbon reality

Biomass on the DECC website

DECC ran a blog in November defending the subsidies for burning woody biomass. The comments (including my own) were pretty overwhelmingly against what DECC had to say.

DECC ran a blog in November defending the subsidies for burning woody biomass. The comments (including my own) were pretty overwhelmingly against what DECC had to say. You can read the blog and the comments here: http://blog.decc.gov.uk/2012/11/22/using-wood-for-bioenergy/