Replacing oil and gas with domestically produced biomass will reinforce strategic autonomy and reduce emissions, argues Brussels. The EU “clings to the illusion” that it is possible to do so without causing “serious and immediate damage” that it will end up inflicting on people and nature, some critics argue.
The European Commission has presented a new plan to end the dominance of the economy by planet-warming fossil fuels — and replace them with trees.
The call, released last Thursday, aims to replace fossil fuels currently used in products such as plastics, construction materials, chemicals and fibers for organic materials that grow back, such as trees and agricultural crops.
“The bioeconomy holds enormous opportunities for our society, economy and industry, for our farmers, foresters and small businesses, and for our ecosystem”, said on Thursday the EU’s top Environment Officer, Jessica Roswallcited by .
At the heart of the strategy is carbonthe fundamental building block of a wide range of manufactured products, not just energy. Almost all of plastic, for example, is made from carbonand currently most of this carbon comes from oil and natural gas.
But fossil fuels have two big disadvantages: they pollute the atmosphere with CO₂ that heats the planet and are, to a large extent, imported from outside the EU, compromising the strategic autonomy of the European bloc.
The bioeconomy strategy aims to respond to both disadvantagesusing locally produced carbon-rich biomass or recycled, rather than imported fossil fuels.
It is proposed to do this through setting targets in relevant legislationsuch as European laws on packaging waste, facilitating bioeconomy startups’ access to financing, harmonizing the regulatory framework and encouraging new sources of biomass.
The strategy, with 23 pages, is sparing with legislative promises or financing, relying mainly on existing laws and funds. Still, it was welcomed by sectors that could benefit from a broader market for materials of biological origin.
“The forestry industry welcomes the Commission’s approach to the growth-oriented bioeconomy”, said the director general of the Swedish Forest Industries Federation, Viveka Beckeman.
The person in charge also highlighted the need to “reinforce the use of biomass as a strategic resource that benefits not only the ecological transition and our common climate goals, but also economic security as a whole.”
How renewable is it, anyway?
But environmentalists fear that Brussels is too excited with the chainsaw. Trees don’t grow overnightand the pressure on natural ecosystems is already unsustainably high.
Scientific reports that the amount of carbon stored in the EU’s forests and soils is decreasing, that the bloc’s natural habitats are in poor condition and that biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate.
The protection of European forests also is no longer a priority for many EU lawmakers. The emblematic European law against deforestation currently faces a second postponementof one year, following a vote in the European Parliament this week.
In October, Parliament also voted in favor of the repeal of a law aimed at monitoring the health of European forests, to reduce bureaucracy.
Environmentalists warn that the bloc may simply not have enough biomass to respond to increased demand.
“Instead of defining a strategy that confront excessive demand of Europe’s resources, the Commission clings to the illusion that we can simply replace our current consumption with bio-based raw materials, ignoring the serious and immediate damage that this will end up inflicting on people and nature,” he said. Eva Billresponsible for the circular economy at the European Environmental Bureau (EBB), in a statement cited by Politico.
Too much wood to be true
Environmental groups want the Commission to prioritize the use of biological resources in long-lasting productssuch as construction, rather than lower-value or short-lived uses such as disposable packaging or fuels.
A first draft version of the proposal, obtained by Politico, fueled some hope among environmental organizations.
The text highlighted new opportunities for sustainable bio-based materials, but also warned that “primary biomass sources must be sustainable and the pressure on ecosystems should be considerably reduced” — to ensure that these opportunities are maintained in the long term.
It also said that the Commission would work on “disincentivizing the inefficient combustion of biomass”, replacing it with other types of energies renewable.
This formulation displeased industrial lobbies.
Craig Winnekercommunications director for ePURE, the ethanol lobby, complained that the language in the document “continues an unfortunate traditionin some sectors of the Commission, of completely ignoring the way in which sustainable biofuels are produced in Europe”, arguing that this energy “is, in fact, a co-product, along with food, feed and biogenic CO₂“.
Now, these references to commitment to reduce environmental pressure and discourage the inefficient combustion of biomass disappeared.
“Bioenergy continues to play a role in energy security, particularly when it uses waste, does not increase water and air pollution and complements other renewable energies”, reads the final version of the text.
“This is a crucial omissiongiven that unsustainable production and consumption in the EU already far exceeds ecological limits, putting people, nature and companies at risk”, criticized the EEB.
Delara BurkhardtMEP from the Socialists and Democrats group, considered it “positive that the strategy recognizes the need to supply biomass in a sustainable way”, but added that the proposal does not address the issue of sufficiency.
“Limit yourself to replacing fossil materials by bio-based materials, maintaining current consumption levels, runs the risk of increasing pressure on ecosystems. This displaces problems rather than solving them. We need reduce overall resource usenot just changing its origin”, he stated.
Roswall declined to comment on the previous draft at Thursday’s press conference. “I think that we need to increase resources we have, and that is what this strategy seeks to do”, he said.
