Climate | EU climate panel: Growing use of bioenergy endangers Europe's carbon sinks

Brussels

Forests and the shrinking of other natural carbon sinks threatens the European Union's climate goals, warns the EU's climate panel. It requires quick actions to stop the contraction of the pharynx and reverse it to growth. According to the climate panel, the use of wood-based bioenergy in Europe must be limited.

The EU's carbon sinks have shrunk since 2010 and are now about a third smaller than in 2005. According to the climate panel, the main explanation for this is that European forests bind less carbon dioxide every year. This is due to the aging of forests, natural disasters and the increase in the use of wood.

This is a big problem for the EU aiming for carbon neutrality. Carbon neutrality means a balance between emissions and sinks, so the less sinks bind carbon dioxide, the greater emission reductions the EU must make elsewhere. Therefore, the EU's goal is to increase carbon sinks so that by the end of the decade, forests and other carbon sinks absorb 310 million tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually. Currently, the size of the carbon sink is approximately 230 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Now the goal is slipping further every year, and according to forecasts, the reduction of the carbon sink will continue for the next few decades.

“It is very unlikely that the EU will reach the goals concerning the land use sector in 2030 or 2050 without a significant and immediate change in the use of forests,” states the climate panel in its recent report, in which it assesses the adequacy of climate measures in relation to the goals.

One the reason for the increase in logging in Europe is the growing use of bioenergy. Usage has doubled since 2005 and is projected to double further by 2050. In Finland, bioenergy is the most important source of renewable energy.

According to the Climate Panel, the EU should ensure that biomass demand remains at a sustainable level.

As a solution, it proposes extending emissions trading to the land use sector as well. In the current emissions trading, industry and energy producers have to buy emission rights from the market in exchange for the emissions they cause. At the moment, the price of a ton of carbon dioxide in the EU emission market is around 80 euros.

If the price of the emission right were at approximately the same level in the land use sector as well, it would direct the use of bioenergy to locations where there are hardly any other options for reducing emissions, the report states.

This would be a soft way to limit the use of bioenergy.

“Without sufficient incentives, we may have to consider some kind of restrictions on the use of bioenergy,” says the chairman of the climate panel Ottmar Edenhofer.

As affairs stand according to the climate panel, incentives for the use of bioenergy are distorted. Private operators can receive bioenergy subsidies and benefit from the fact that bioenergy is considered emission-free, but if the carbon sink shrinks as a result of logging, the bill will be offset by the state. For example, Finland may have to buy emission rights from other EU countries, because it doesn't meet the sink goals.

“Currently, there is no emission pricing in the land use sector, which means that the profits of using biomass are privatized and the costs are socialized,” says Edenhofer.

If The EU does not manage to strengthen carbon sinks, reaching the climate goals threatens to become even more difficult. In its report, the climate panel states that reaching the 2030 goals requires that the pace of emission reductions in the EU doubles in the next few years.