Europe has weathered a hard year of energy insecurity attributable to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and global climate change impacts, including unprecedented floods, droughts, wildfires, and heatwaves. Record-breaking energy prices have rocked economies, and the economic fallout from Europe’s dependence on imported gas is only expected to get worse as winter gives Putin another chance to weaponize fossil fuels. Europe has considered several climate-damaging economic emergency steps, including imports of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and temporarily bringing retired coal plants back online. Now, the block is considering measures to move away from biomass energy, a woody, sustainable resource Putin can’t destabilize.

Europe has had a perplexing history with low-carbon energy. Germany famously moved to shut down its zero-emissions nuclear plants, and now some policymakers want to limit the use of bioenergy through proposed amendments to the Renewable Energy Directive (REDIII) that would declassify “primary woody biomass” as renewable energy.

At the same time, Europe has made a wildly controversial push to classify natural gas as “clean energy.” Critical votes in parliament will happen in September and October on all of these issues. “It’s a vexing time to be taking clean energy sources off the table,” said David Wade, a former State Department Chief of Staff who worked on the Paris Climate Agreement and is WW0’s chairman.

Why It Matters

For the EU to have a chance at hitting its ambitious climate goals, the bloc has been in need of more clean energy (including in its hard-to-abate sectors) even before Russia’s destabilizing actions caused record-high energy price inflation. Biomass is essential to the future of carbon removal efforts through bioenergy with carbon capture and storage technology. Leading models show that the use of bioenergy must at least double to reach climate neutrality by 2050. As stated by the International Energy Agency (IEA), maximizing bioenergy use will also be key to reducing Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels.

“Europe and the world do not have to choose between addressing today’s energy security crisis and the climate crisis,” said IEA Director Dr. Fatih Birol. “The lasting solution to both crises is a huge and rapid scaling up of investment in energy efficiency, renewables, and other clean technologies.”

Europe And Sustainable Biomass

For decades, sustainable biomass was a European success story. It was the first and only renewable energy source to have specific sustainability criteria enshrined in EU law and has already done more than any other renewable to keep fossil carbon safely in the ground. Biomass currently accounts for 20% of Europe’s renewable energy consumption. Residential and district heating systems and power stations have converted from fossil fuels to run on the byproducts and residues of sustainable forestry operations. In total, woody biomass heats 50 million homes and generates 40 gigawatts of on-demand power, contributing more to Europe’s renewable energy goals than wind, solar, and hydro output combined.