Protected forests in Europe felled to meet EU renewable targets...

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    Protected forests in Europe felled to meet EU renewable targets – report

    FEBRUARY 23, 2017

    *** Protected forests are being indiscriminately felled across Europe to meet the EU’s renewable energy targets,


    *** Up to 65% of Europe’s renewable output currently comes from bioenergy, involving fuels such as wood pellets and chips, rather than wind and solar power.


    *** The logging of whole trees releases all of their stored carbon and drains the planet’s “carbon sink” or potential for absorbing more emissions. Even if new saplings are planted, it may take 50 years or more until they are able to compensate for felled trees,

    *** The continent’s carbon sink is forecast by the EU to decline by about 100m tonnes between 2020 and 2030, partly because of logging for bioenergy.

    An EU source told the Guardian that industrial-scale demand from large power plants was a key contributor to the felling of forests for bioenergy.

    *** One massive wood plant in Vyborg, north-west Russia produces 800,000 tonnes of wood pellets each year from felled trees in forests around Leningrad and Pakov oblasts. Its wood products are sold to companies including RWE, Vattenfall, Fortum and Dong Energy to meet demand in Denmark, Italy, Finland and Sweden.

    *** The biomass industry continues to claim that they only use offcuts, which would otherwise be left to rot.
    But it is now becoming increasingly obvious that they are being economical with the truth.

    All of it:

    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wor...e-felled-to-meet-eu-renewable-targets-report/
 
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