Beyond Bioenergy

A joint statement in favor of truly sustianabile EU energy policy

The Global Forest Coalition is among the signatories of this joint statement, Beyond Bioenergy, which calls on the EU to stop industrial-scale burning of biomass as a supposed renewable energy and instead opt for fair and truly sustainable solutions.

The statement, signed by 82 civil society organisations, was drafted by Oxfam, Fern, WWF, Protect the Forests Sweden and Healthy Indoor Environment and Green Global Future.

It asserts that bioenergy should not replace fossil fuels, and that the EU must stop incentivising the burning of trees and crops
and choose sustainable solutions instead. For a sustainable future, policies should be fair, efficient, consistent, and sufficiency-oriented.

The statement makes the following recommendations:

Stop rewarding the destruction of climate and nature, and instead support the shift towards wiser uses of biomass.
End all incentives for burning trees and crops, implement the cascading principle so that burning biomass for energy is a last resort and ensure that scarce biomass resources are used in sectors with no other options.
Reorganise our economy to be dramatically more equal, and break free from the linear model of extraction and resource depletion, where natural resources are continually removed and consumed faster than they can regenerate.
Re-embed resource use within societal purposes, for example, by working with countries and local communities to access and use raw materials fairly.
Prioritise resource demand reduction and support existing and scalable solutions, including fair access to electrification, sustainably produced wind and solar power, energy storage, public transport and
insulation.
Design consistent, efficient, sufficiency-oriented and fair policies that radically reduce inequality, increase wellbeing and keep us within planetary boundaries.

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Beyond Bioenergy: A civil society statement on EU bioenergy policy