Page 56 - European Energy Innovation - Summer 2016 publication

56 Summer 2016 European Energy Innovation

BIOMASS

Unleashing bioenergy

By Christofer Fjellner, Member of the European Parliament

One thing is certain;
biomass will be at the
centre stage the coming
years. It will be crucial to
increase the share of biomass in our
energy production if we are to stop
global warming. But there is definitely
room for improvement. As our use of
biomass increases so are the threats
to it and so is the competition for raw
materials. And as this competition
increases more and more players will
want to use politics and legislation in
order to secure their own supply. We
can already hear calls being raised
for more and tougher regulation of
biomass. For instance phrases such
as ‘cascading use’ and ‘sustainability
criteria’ are catching on. Because who
wouldn’t want to promote an efficient
and sustainable use of resources?

But what they mean within the walls of
the European Parliament and the outside
world is two completely different things.
‘Cascading use’ is a sound principle for
a company to apply at its own resources
which the industry already does as they
have an interest in maximizing profit. But
in the EU context it means that politicians
decide which resources should be used
for what and how. And sustainability
criteria might sound reasonable but
all too often it is forgotten that fossil
fuels have no sustainability criteria
whatsoever. By wanting to protect
biomass we might in fact smother it. And
in most cases the alternative to biomass
is fossil fuels. At the same time I can
understand that countries which have
no forests or other sources of biomass
wants to know that what they are shifting
to is in fact sustainable and not creating
yet another problem which we will have
to handle later on.

www.europeanenergyinnovation.eu