Biomass: Britain's dirty secret

Burning trees releases more CO₂ than coal
'Biomass' means burning virgin forests and plantations, putting extra CO₂ into the air, which stays there for up to 100 years when the forest eventually grows back, if it even does
Photo: ElectricShock

You’ve probably noticed the incredible growth of wind and solar power over the last 10 years, from almost nothing, to become a serious player in our energy mix 15.8% of UK emissions (55 Mt) come from UK's POWER STATIONS ... but
UK official figures ignore an extra 20 Mt per year from Biomass which still causes climate change.

UK Electricity - Fuels Used (MTOE) & CO₂ Emissions (tonnes)
Sources: DUKES 5.3, DUKES 5.1.1 and UK Emissions 2021
* For chart purposes, 'Fuel Used' for renewables is represented by the amount of coal saved, based on coal energy efficiency of 34% (from DUKES 5.6) compared to gas (45%), nuclear (35%) and biomass (25%)

75% fall in carbon emissions from power stations since 1990
25% cuts from switching from coal to gas in the early 1990s. 50% cuts since 2010 coincide with the growth of wind, solar and the burning of waste and biomass (official figures ignore the 20 million tonnes of CO₂ from biomass, treating it as 'renewable'). . But have you spotted that electricity from biomass has grown even more during that time? If it is a good thing, then why has the government been less keen to publicise the success of this supposedly sustainable technology?

Push for cleaner fuels

Rather than close down UK coal-fired power stations, some were quietly converted to burn ‘biomass’ (wood pellets) instead of coal. The once-notorious Drax power station As the UK's largest power station, Drax became the poster child for UK coal power and campaigns to end it in the 2000s. So Drax reinvented itself by converted its operations to burning wood. . claims that converting to biomass reduced its emissions by 90%. The biomass comes from waste wood, offcuts and sawdust, but also from virgin forest. The process isn’t perfect - turning wood into pellets emits a tonne of CO2 for every 4 tonnes of pellets. Then the pellets burn less efficiently than coal, making the same amount of CO2 for less energy. It’s expensive too - Drax relies heavily on government subsidies (£832 million in 2018) and tax breaks (£253 million). However, unlike coal, biomass is a renewable fuel, because at some point in the future the wood will grow back. Or at least, that’s how Drax and the government justify it. UK imports of these pellets have risen from near zero in 2010 to 8 million tonnes in 2018, mostly from the US and Canada.

Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire consumed one quarter of the world’s wood pellets in 2017, but world demand is set to double by 2027 (in the UK, Netherlands, Japan, South Korea), adding hundreds of millions of tonnes of extra CO2 to the atmosphere.
Photo: Andrew Whale via WikiMedia

Worse than coal

Cutting down virgin forest

In effect, UK power stations have been repurposed to cut down and burn American forests. Drax and the UK government claim that the CO2 released doesn’t count as carbon emissions because it’s wood that will all grow back in the future. But the biomass of these forests can take 40-100 years to grow back … if at all. The consequences for climate change of burning down "8 million tonnes of forest that will grow back in 40 years”... is 20 million tonnes of CO2 straight into the atmosphere, at least until 2060, but possibly forever. That’s 5% annually of the UK’s total emissions, together with £1billion in subsidies, paid from the ‘green levy’ on the UK’s energy bills.

The climate emergency can't wait for biomass to grow back
So if burning biomass is worse than coal for CO2 emissions, why does the UK government support it? One explanation could be its choice of advisers, exemplified by a Drax executive on its Climate Change Committee. Ministers have keenly followed Drax’s logic, to exploit a loophole in the 1997 Kyoto protocol that allows biomass emissions to be reported as net zero. It bends carbon accounting rules to allow a highly polluting activity to pass as carbon-neutral. It enables governments to hit targets whilst energy and forestry producers make money, from tax payers who think they’re paying the extra to reduce CO2 emissions. But it is having the exact opposite effect, increasing CO2 in the atmosphere at a crucial time, for decades or even centuries ahead. The climate emergency can’t wait for the biomass to grow back.

Political failure

Politicians turn a blind eye to the loophole

Europe all but destroyed its ancient forest cover by 1850. Now the rich nations call on poorer countries like Brazil, India, Indonesia to preserve their own forests, whilst the UK quietly pays America to to burn down its forests. But surely Brazil, India and Indonesia will want a piece of the biomass bonanza, to make money from their forests, following the example of the US, Canada, Ukraine and Belarus?

Drax consumed one quarter of the world’s wood pellets in 2017, but world demand is set to double by 2027 (in the UK, Netherlands, Japan, South Korea), resulting in hundreds of millions of tonnes of extra CO2 in the atmosphere. All this dishonest carbon accounting could have been stopped in its tracks when governments met at COP25 in Madrid (2019). Politicians ignored the scientists trying to close the biomass loophole scam back then, and again at COP 26 in Glasgow (in 2021).