Bio-based chemicals have the potential to partly replace fossil fuels in applications like fertilisers and plastics, but the transition will take decades and there are still big challenges ahead to scale up production without harming the environment, scientists say.
Fifteen or twenty years will be needed “at the very least” to phase out fossil-based fertilisers and switch to bio-based solutions, says Kevin O’Connor. But it can be done with the right incentives, he argues in an interview.
Banks and financial institutions see investment in scaling up bio-based technologies as “non-bankable” despite these initiatives offering clear paths to reaching government-set environment and climate targets. What’s going wrong?
Europe needs stronger policies for bio-based products in order to make it clear that virgin fossil products do not compete in the same category, Rob Beekers argues in an interview with Euractiv. Rob Beekers is Business Development Director at Cargill, an …
While the European Commission is in the process of updating the EU's new bioeconomy strategy, Eastern European countries are calling for more deployment of this technology on their territory to close the gap with Western Europe.
While rapid and significant reductions in emissions must be the cornerstone of climate action, permanent carbon removals will have a role to play to achieve zero-net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, argue Dr. Felix Schenuit and Martin Birk Rasmussen.
Businesses remain sceptical that a new EU certification framework for carbon removals is sufficient to generate a self-sustaining market, arguing Brussels must do more to make removing carbon from the atmosphere financially attractive.
Environmental groups are taking the UK government to court on Monday (13 November) over plans to spend billions on Biomass with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), a technology aimed at removing CO2 from the atmosphere that is also being promoted by the European Union.
In a show of diplomatic strength, the prime ministers of Sweden and Finland have invited EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to visit their country's forests and refrain from overburdening the sector ahead of an election year.
Spain will double its 2030 biogas production target and almost triple its green hydrogen goal as part of a broad upgrade of its energy and climate ambitions, a draft of the government's strategy showed on Wednesday (28 June).
The EU's revised Renewable Energy Directive strengthens the sustainability criteria for biomass heat and power, but the compromise text means it might only lead to limited improvements in the short term, argue Gemma Toop and Michèle Koper.
The EU's biomass sustainability rules will apply more loosely in overseas territories like French Guiana to promote economic development there, but the exception inserted in the bloc's Renewable Energy Directive will lead to increased deforestation, environmentalists say.
As final negotiations on the Renewable Energy Directive are approaching, the risk is that EU policymakers will continue to treat forest wood burning as “zero-carbon” renewable energy and reward it with billions in subsidies, writes Mary S. Booth.
The EU’s proposed nature restoration law is the subject of hot debates. While forest owners worry about the impact on jobs and the economy, activists outline the positive externalities for health and the environment.
The European Commission made an unsuccessful attempt to bridge divisions over forest biomass between the Parliament and EU countries during talks held earlier this week to revise the EU’s renewable energy directive.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) has acknowledged “weaknesses” in how biomass energy is counted in national statistics after several EU countries reported a sudden increase in residential wood burning to meet their 2020 renewable energy goals.
EU member states that have a very high share of renewable heat tend to be the countries that burn a lot of biomass. And if they burn it inefficiently, it’s even better for them because they get more credit under the EU's renewable energy directive, says Jan Rosenow.
The European Parliament voted on Wednesday (14 December) in favour of faster approval deadlines for new renewable energy installations, paving the way for talks with EU member states to finalise the law next year.
In its current form, the EU’s renewable energy directives encourages the use of primary woody biomass from forests as an energy source. However, the directive gives a completely wrong picture of the associated greenhouse gas emissions, write a group of academics.
Subsidies for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) risk diverting large sums of funding to projects unlikely to benefit the climate. Instead, they should be spent on home insulation and heat pumps that will reduce carbon emissions and relieve fuel poverty, argues Almuth Ernsting.
European Parliament plans to exclude some types of primary wood from the EU's renewable energy goals is causing jitters among the industry, which points to bioenergy as an essential part of the EU's energy security.
Over 45,000 families in North Macedonia are at risk of being left without heating after the government decided to cap pellet prices at €6.50, a price which wholesalers have refused to sell at.
Phasing out forest biomass as ‘renewable energy’ would yield massive benefits in terms of air pollution and climate protection, writes Mary S. Booth. To sweeten the deal, the EU should suspend fines for countries missing their renewable energy target as a consequence of efforts made, she suggests.
The European Parliament and EU member states reached agreement late on Thursday (10 November) on a new law regulating the contribution of the forestry and land use sector to the EU’s 2030 climate goals.
