Eye on Asia | By ditching coal for biomass, Japan and South Korea are embracing false hope of a zero-carbon future
- Burning wood pellets to generate power is often not carbon neutral and can be more polluting than coal
- By funding biomass instead of wind and solar, governments will undermine their net zero goals, waste taxpayer’s money and add to deforestation
Last year, my colleagues and I [Tomos] took a close look at Britain’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter. It’s not a coal plant – at least not any more, really.
These subsidies are provided under the premise that burning biomass is carbon neutral, that all the carbon released from burning trees is reabsorbed when new trees are grown. This logic is no longer supported by the latest scientific evidence, which shows that burning wood for power is often not carbon neutral, and can be more polluting than coal.
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Climate deal to ‘phase down’ coal reached at COP26 as nations seek to avert climate disaster
Yet, surprisingly, most people, including many policymakers, did not realise how dirty this energy could be, and were shocked to learn just how much money meant to reduce carbon emissions was being used to pump them up.