N. Peter Kramer’s Weekly Column
The European Commission has been accused of ‘sacrificing forests’ after it published proposals that would allow trees to continue to be burned for fuel. These proposals are a part of “Fit for 55”, the commission new energy strategy, heralded with great fanfare by Climate Commissioner Frans Timmermans.
The charges of ‘accelerating climate breakdown’ through woodburning were made immediately after the unveiling of the chapter forest strategy of ‘Fit for 55’. It also includes the commission goal to plant 3 billion trees across the EU by 2030. The organisation ‘Protect Forest Sweden’ said that the commission has failed to address one of the key drivers of forest degradation counting forest biomass as renewable energy. ‘It is harmful to forests and insufficient to tackle climate change. We are in desperate need of honest policies that include all our emissions in the statistics.’
The commission has chosen ‘to sacrifice rather than admit that current EU bio energy policy is making the climate crisis worse’, Protect Forest Sweden said. ‘Enough with the burning. We cannot just switch from burning one climate disastrous fuel to another’.
Earlier this year, more than 500 scientists wrote to the commission to end all subsidies for wood burning: ‘regrowing trees and displacement of fossil fuels may eventually pay of this carbon debt, but regrowth takes time the world does not have to solve climate change’.
Come on Frans! Stop sacrificing forests and change your inferior plans!
