Category: Uncategorized

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is the single most important measure ever taken to lessen climate change’s effects in the US. The federal government is spending hundreds of billions of dollars to mobilize industrial and economic policies in favor of clean energy and to hasten the decarbonization of the entire economy.

However, President Biden’s proclamation of this law’s passage is just the beginning. Many of the IRA’s most innovative initiatives are far from prescriptive in their interpretation, and now it is up to federal agencies, state governments, state energy offices, regulators, and utilities to decide how these new powers will be used and how financing will be distributed.

This is a significant victory for Congress that marks the beginning of a new phase in the development and deployment of clean energy in the United States. In order to lower carbon emissions in the power sector and restore the country’s energy infrastructure, the IRA expressly introduces numerous important initiatives and incentives targeted at utilities.

Utilities and grid operators will be required to adapt to an influx of advanced energy technologies, shifting consumer demands, and rising regulatory expectations that will change how we generate, distribute, and consume electricity. Its numerous new and expanded incentives for consumers to adopt things like electric vehicles, heat pumps, solar systems, and batteries.

A wide range of distributed energy resources (DERs)—including renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other cutting-edge energy systems placed in homes and businesses—are eligible for additional incentives. Numerous of these initiatives are targeted towards lower-income, disadvantaged, and indigenous households and are designed to reduce the up-front costs associated with their switch to clean energy.

The transportation industry is given special attention in the IRA with new and enhanced incentives for electric cars and commercial vehicles as the source of almost 30% of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. These initiatives broaden tax benefits for infrastructure for vehicle charging stations and cover both new and old cars.

Accelerating the deployment of carbon-free generators is the main objective of one of the largest financing tranches under the IRA, and both DERs and utility-scale energy systems are eligible for new and enhanced incentives. Notably, the IRA increases the investment and production tax credits and adds new direct payment mechanisms, making these incentives available to local governments, nonprofits, places of worship, and other entities without tax obligations to balance.

The budding business can now benefit from very large subsidies for clean, renewable hydrogen technologies. For the first ten years that a facility is in operation, the IRA administers a production tax credit with multipliers for prevailing wage and apprenticeship criteria.

In addition to lowering carbon emissions, the IRA increases and alters the incentives for projects that verifiably absorb and store carbon.

The nation will require a dependable and expanded transmission system to transmit the energy from where it is produced to where it is used as the amount of new renewable energy entering the electric grid increases. The IRA funds new transmission and makes investments to expedite the siting of new infrastructure, which can typically take years to complete, especially when cables traverse many authorities and properties.

One of the few sticks in legislation stuffed with climate carrots, the new law seeks to minimize methane emissions in the extraction, transportation, and combustion of natural gas. The IRA not only adds additional reporting requirements but also harsh fines for methane leaks and financial support for reduction initiatives.

With its numerous energy and tax features, the Inflation Reduction Act ushers in a new clean energy era for the American economy that will revolutionize utility grid management and long-term planning.

The articles and the financial implications are outlined in this ICF article.

The most recent version of the Joint Research Centre’s (JRC) Annual Report on Forest Fires in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa was released in 2021. According to the report, last year’s fire season was the second worst in terms of burned territory on EU territory (since records have been kept since 2006), trailing only 2017 with nearly 10,000 km2 burned. More than 5,500 km2 of land burned in 2021—an area more than twice the size of Luxembourg—with over 1,000 km2 of that land burning inside protected Natura 2000 areas, the EU’s biodiversity reserve.

When analyzing early data on the effects of wildfires in the current year, the yearly reports allow the use of previous fire seasons as a reference. In light of this, 2022 appears to be even worse, supporting the unsettling destructive trend of recent years. In reality, this year has seen the burning of an area measuring 8,600 km2. By the end of October, this was one of the largest areas in Europe that had been burned by wildfires, breaking previous records for burned land in nine EU nations. Wildfires have burned across 35,340 km2 of land since the worst fire season on record in 2017, an area greater than Belgium. More than 11,600 km2 or around 35% of the overall burned area was located in the Natura 2000 network area.

Major conclusions of the report

Mapped fires in 2021 burned 500,566 hectares (ha) in total, greater than the expected 340,000 ha in 2020 but significantly less than the 1 million ha of 2017;

According to the 2021 report on forest fires, Italy was the nation with the greatest amount of burned land, followed by Turkey, Portugal, and Greece, particularly in August;

Wildfires severely impacted Europe’s Natura 2000 protected sites: in 2021, 102,598 ha (or roughly 20% of all Natura 2000 sites’ total area) were burned, which was less than the previous two years and significantly less than the average of the previous ten years;

Burnt areas increased compared to 2020 in southern EU countries, and it was the second-worst year for average fire size since 1986. The total number of fires was the lowest ever, resulting in significantly fewer but larger fires.

The EU Civil Protection Mechanism was improved with rescEU in 2019 and substantially strengthened in order to support countries throughout this fire season in 2021.

Six nations have requested planes, helicopters, and firefighters 11 times this year alone, making it the second year in the last ten years with the most requests to the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

Two major impacts are mutually dependent

The increase in wildfires is clearly a sign of changing climate. However, there is another factor accounting for the severity of these fires being so devastating and large: Pest infestations.

We are seeing a global increase in forest infestations with beetles and other varmints. In Germany, many areas such as the Harz are suffering from almost 100% forest decline of trees with a diameter of >25 cm. I spoke with forestry workers in Bad Sachsa, who were preparing dead logs for the harvester to process. They are snowed under with work now and know that the next ten to twenty years will be very tough for the forest industry. Forest owners have to afforest and give the trees time to regrow to ensure a sustainable forest management.

This will have a significant impact on the timber value chain, affecting construction wood and biomass alike. As less wood is available for construction wood and furniture, less sawdust is available for wood pellets. The thinning of regrowing forest cannot compensate for the sawmill residues. This development will increase the cost pressure on the aforementioned industries and might snooker achieving the European Green Deal goals and the energy transition towards renewable energies.

Bioenergy Europe published the Statistical Pellet Report for 2022.

The total amount of pellets produced by the EU27 increased significantly, or by roughly 9%, in 2021. This relative growth translates into a growth in absolute terms of 1.636.119 tonnes. With 3.355.000 tonnes, Germany continues to be the EU27’s top producer, significantly outpacing Lithuania, which came in second with 2.108.400 tonnes. Seven of the top ten manufacturers in the world are located in the European Union. Other than Germany and Lithuania, the top producers globally include Sweden, France, Poland, Austria, and Estonia. Between 2020 and 2021, the rest of Europe (outside the EU27) also experienced a large growth of about 15%, or an absolute increase of about 200.000 tonnes. This number might appear to be low, but it is actually low because Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine were not included in the data for this report’s edition.

In absolute terms, North American production increased by just over 500.000 tonnes between 2020 and 2021, or around 4%. It’s important to note that this gain is nearly entirely the result of Canada’s output growth, which grew by 15% or 490.000 tonnes. The USA, the other nation included in this aggregate, saw a less than 1% increase in production. With about 9,3 million tonnes produced in 2021, the US is remain the world’s top producer of pellets.

Unfortunately, the South American data that has been gathered is only available for Brazil and Chile, the continent’s two biggest pellet producers. Therefore, this must be considered when drawing generalizations about South America as a whole. Unfortunately, no funding could be secured from Chile this year. The production in 2021 is 17% more than it was in 2020, or a total rise of 190.000 tonnes, although this gain is solely attributable to an increase in Brazilian production. Given the dearth of statistics, it seems likely that the rise in production in South America is higher than 17%.

Since no contribution from Oceania was received this year, it is regrettable that it is not possible to confirm the anticipated increase in production capacity in Australia that was stated last year. As a result, the data is updated to 2020. Even though there were the same number of production locations, we can nevertheless see an increase in actual production in New Zealand.

Due to challenges acquiring data, production in Asia (mostly Southeast Asia Plus Japan, South Korea, and China) cannot be calculated with any degree of accuracy. Thus, production in 2021 will be comparable to that in 2020. However, it is likely that output increased as well because continental consumption climbed by around 33% between 2020 and 2021. No data for China is shown in this study due to the unpredictability of the country’s pellet market. Accurate figures are hard to come by because of the vastness of the nation and the dominance of small producers on its market. In addition, it’s unclear what kind of pellet China is manufacturing (whether wood pellets or agropellets). In any case, it appears that the Chinese market is entirely domestic (there are essentially no imports or exports), which has very little effect on the world supply and demand.

Africa is still an undeveloped market for pellets today. Despite the continent’s significant wood supply, the pellet sector is still in its infancy. However, recent investments in the manufacture of wood pellets in Africa (mostly in South Africa and Gabon) have resulted in a marked increase in pellet output, which will be seen in the upcoming years.

For more information, visit Bioenergy Europe.

The Paris Agreement’s goal of 1.5°C in focus, more than 40 countries pledge to phase out coal by 2040.

Coal without carbon capture, mitigation or set off is the most polluting fossil fuel. Coal is also very handy, as transport and storage are easy. This makes it more difficult to phase out and establish low-carbon alternative fuels. Sustainably sourced biomass feedstocks are such an alternative, as they can also be stored, transported and used easily whenever needed. The big difference is the carbon cycle. Fossil fuels took hundreds of millions of years to build and emmit carbondioxid without taking it up in the near future. Sustainably sourced biomass introduces new carbon into the biosphere like coal does. However, new growing trees store the amount emitted from burning. The additional carbon from processing and transport can be sett off with other instruments as they will rely on fossil fuels for some time. Some coal stations have been converted to operate on biomass, which improves the environmental footprint of these facilities significantly while saving jobs and keeping infrastructure costs low.

The housing industry has a huge carbon saving potential. Bioenergy is a useful way to remove coal and gas from the these energy systems without increasing energy security risks. Bioenergy makes an excellent base load compared to wind and solar, as it is available independent from the weather.

Sources:

DGSB

UKCOP26

A coalition of thirteen wood bioenergy companies and organisations signed a declaration on sustainability. The declaration envisions the ambitious industry goals for growth to support the global net zero strategy. Existing wood bioenergy technlogies already help to deliver sustainable renewable energy and will further support the EU’s goals as the industry grows.

The signatories are well known companies from the woody biomass industries, siuch as

Drax is a vertically integrated power supplier with own wood pellet production facilities in the United States. The biomass subisidary is Drax Biomass.

Enviva Biomass is world’s largest supplier of sustainable woody biomass. The company operates several wood pellet plants in the United States with a focus on the South East.

Graanul Invest is the largest European wood pellet supplier. The company mainly operates in the Baltics. In the United States Graanul Invest produces wood pellets in their plant in Texas.

Fram Fuels is a US wood pellet producer with three facilities. The main source is sustainably grown white southern pine.

The United States Industrial Pellet Association is a non-profit trade association that promotes sustainability and safety practices within the US wood energy industries.

‘Fit for 55’ is the EU package delivering on the 2030 Climate Target to climate neutrality.

The EU has set ambitious targets for reducing net emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990. Reaching this goal targets on being the first climate neutral continent by 2050. The package of proposals is the approach to make the EU ‘fit for 55’ and deliver on the questions that arise with the goal. All share the benefits of more space for nature, cleaner air, cooler and greener cities. Thus, the opportunity to take action is open to all innovators and investors, companies and cities, consumers, households and individuals. The challenge is a swift green transition, while strengthening competitiveness, job creation and positive impacts of the transition.

The European Green Deal is the blueprint for transformational change. There is growing public support for climate ambition and action. The proposals fundament are policies and legislation the European Union has already put in place.  The package is based on evidence. The 2030 Climate Target Plan assesses the opportunities and costs of the green transition, and showes that the balance is a positive one if we get the policy mix right.

The Fit for 55 Package alone is not enough and cannot deliver the global emission reduction the world needs. However, the EU remains committed to the multilateral global order and calls upon partners around the world to work together. The 26th United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (‘COP26’) in Glasgow in November 2021 is one of the events for global target setting.

“The Fit for 55 Package: At a glance The Fit for 55 package consists of a set of inter-connected proposals, which all drive towards the same goal of ensuring a fair, competitive and green transition by 2030 and beyond. Where possible existing legislation is made more ambitious and where needed new proposals are put on the table. Overall, the package strengthens eight existing pieces of legislation and presents five new initiatives, across a range policy areas and economic sectors: climate, energy and fuels, transport, buildings, land use and forestry. The legislative proposals are backed by impact assessment analysis, which takes into account the interconnection of the overall package. The analysis shows that an over-reliance on strengthened regulatory policies would lead to unnecessarily high economic burdens, while carbon pricing alone would not overcome persistent market failures and non-market barriers. The chosen policy mix is therefore a careful balance between pricing, targets, standards and support measures. Support measures•Using revenues and regulations to promote innovation, build solidarity and mitigate impacts for the vulnerable, notably through the new Social Climate Fund and enhanced Modernisation and Innovation Funds.” European Commission

Full content available here.

In the plenary session on June 7th, the European Parliament debated and passed the Biodiversity Strategy. The strategy is non-binding. However, it calls for revising and aligning EU rules on the use of biomass for energy production with the objectives of the Biodiversity Strategy. Amendment 17, which would have benefited bioenergy, failed. The Biodiversity Strategy is awaiting approval from the Council. 

“The debate was opened by Rapporteur César Luena (S&D, ES) who began by thanking scientists, activists, NGOs, and young people. He argued that the text is well balanced and well negotiated and repeated the call for a binding biodiversity law. He argued that biodiversity and climate need to be solved together. He acknowledged that there are a lot of opinions on forest, and it is important to take them into account, but it is essential to protect primary and old growth forests. He concluded by saying any transition must be socially and environmentally sustainable.” comments Bioenergy Europe. And furthermore summarizes that “The debate concluded with the Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius, who stressed the importance of recognising and supporting farmers, foresters, and fishermen to transition towards sustainability, but it is not possible to lower the ambition on protecting biodiversity to promote cooperation and inclusiveness. He argued that although forests in Europe have been increasing in quantity, they are under increasing pressure, so their protection is crucial. He concluded by mentioning that a new forest strategy will be presented in July.”

For further information contact Bioenergy Europe.

The technical committe will hold the next meeting on sustainable biomass and biofuels on 8th June 2021. The committee’s aim is to review the REDII Forest Biomass Operational Guidance. The supra-national bioenergy association Bioenergy Europe “encourages national associations to reach out to their governments in advance of the meeting if they have not done so to share Bioenergy Europe’s reply and their concerns.” 

To convert coal power plants to biomass power plants, Germany requires contracts for difference (CfDs) to make them profitable under current market conditions.

Fuel costs hinder German power plants from being profitable when switching to biomass based raw material. In order to make the conversion profitable, Germany needs to introduce CfDs, as used in UK. CfDs have the advantage of minimising profitability risks and increasing the probability of investments.

“Enervis estimates electricity production costs at €105-120/MWh for a 10-year funding period if a plant is commissioned in 2026. Annual funding for plant is estimated at €33-46/MWh, depending on several factors, such as the location and capacity of the plant, fixed costs and others. The average annual funding is estimated at €37/MWh.

In addition, the development of wholesale power prices is a factor in determining funding needs. Power prices will depend on the development of CO2 prices. Under this scenario, CO2 prices are estimated at €44/t CO2e in 2030.” Argus Media

Implementing a coal-to-biomass strategy would increase the base load capacities of renewable energy in Germany.

Enervis Study in German.

Achieving EU climate goals and energy transition targets depends on forest bioenergy that is produced sustainably. Therefore, the 2018 Renewable Energy Directive introduces new sustainability criteria for biomass and biogas in heat and power that cover forest biomass, too.

Several associations have brought forward their concerns, amendment ideas and other input.

A guidance to enable robust and harmonised implementation of sustainability criteria for forest biomass is important. To prevent market barriers, it is crucial to interprete measures and timeliness in transposition and implementation coherently. We need to emphasize that this is not a sustainability issue, but rather an issue of the mechanisms and systems. The draft regulation in its current formulation, stretches the boundaries of the criteria according to the Renewable Energy Directive, by adopting several recommendations from the 2021 Joint Research Centre report on woody biomass. However, the inclusion of these criteria should be avoided as this would lower the momentum.

Link to the EC Draft Act. The deadline for inputs closes on 28th April 2021.

Bioenergy Europe

The EU is starting a series of webinars on taxonomy. The webinars are an opportunity to explore and discuss key concepts and possible future policy solutions related to the Platform on Sustainable Finance’s work. “Interested stakeholders will be able to engage on the approaches and key concepts developed by the Platform on Sustainable Finance so far and get an insight in the work process of the Platform.”

There will be five livestreams, exploring different aspects of the EU taxonomy:

• “The first webinar will focus on the role the EU taxonomy can play in stimulating and mobilising finance for transition to environmental sustainability
• The second webinar will discuss possible ways of extending the EU taxonomy framework beyond green activities
• The third webinar will present some of main challenges and possible solutions with regard to taxonomy-linked data and corporate reporting and disclosure
• The fourth webinar will offer an insight into the work process of the Platform in developing the EU taxonomy criteria for the remaining four environmental objectives (water, circular economy, pollution and biodiversity)
• The fifth webinar will address the potential development of social taxonomy and give an insight into a possible structure of such taxonomy”

Registration for the events.

Source

The EU allows investments from private investors to fund green tech. According to a survey, private entities are able to participate in the renewable energy financing mechanism. The European Commission opened a seven-point questionnaire that aims at providing indicative feedback on potential investors. The EU renewable energy financing mechanism is in the implementation phase.

Private investment are a cornerstone of the successful rollout of the European Green Deal. Private investors will have an equal opportunity to contribute to the mechanism. Their financial contributions count to the EU binding target of at least 32 % of  renewable energy. There will be a link to projects with financial support from private investmors to the EU-wide green label. An additional incentive are possible guarantees of origins for the energy production corresponding to the private investment contribution. Guarantees of origin “could be issued for the renewable energy production in accordance with Article 19 of the directive and subject to the national legislation in the country hosting the project.” Private investors benefit from broadening their sustainability and decarbonisation portfolio and from diversifying their investment agenda.

All private entities, natural or legal persons, can express their participation interest. They can further indicate a preference for the tender procedure for which its payment is intended, or a type of technology that they wish to support.

“Replying to this questionnaire does not create any legal or financial rights or obligations either for the respondent or for the European Commission.”

Further information:

The survey:

Expression of interest for participation in the Union renewable energy financing mechanism as a private investor

EU renewable energy financing mechanism

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1294

Information according to (link).

The European Joint Research Centre (JRC) published an analysis on the European forests and their biomass potential.

Europes bioeconomy is highly relying on forest biomass as a relevant source of energy and raw material. However, the biomass stock data are poorly harmonized and need an update. The JRC Biomass Assessment Study recognized this need. This helps to understand the possible contribution of biomass stock in Europe to a sustainable bioeconomy. “The present report provides an overview of existing forest biomass data in Europe, describes the methodologies used to harmonize and compare them, and proposes an improved biomass map consistent with the forest inventory data.”

European countries have diverging forest and biomass definitions. The estimation periods are different and use various scales. A first step in the study was the harmonization of biomass data provided by the National Forest Inventories (NFIs). Furthermore, the biomass maps for forest definition had to be resonated. Finally, amendments lead to consistent data on forest areas and “biomass available for wood supply, using the same reference definition and common criteria to assess wood availability and related restrictions. The data harmonization produced a reference database of forest biomass in Europe, which includes statistics at sub-national scale and field plots, both harmonized for biomass pool and reference year.”

With the Biomass of European Forests database, uncertainties of the biomass maps at different spatial scales become visible. With the harmonized data it became clear that biomass maps have a relatively low accuracy at local scale. The result of the study is a biomass map of Europe at 1 ha resolution for the year 2010. This map is “in line with the reference statistics in terms of forest area and biomass stock.”

The European Commission published recommendations to the Member States’ Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plans. Here is the link to the recommendations for all countries.

As an example, the European Commission recommends Germany to foster a smart and diversified agricultural industry that is able to ensure food security. The industry shall further strengthen the actions taken to protect the environment and climate. All with respect to the climate-related goals of the Union. Societal concerns especially in rural areas are another improvement option. Considering the impacts of digitalization, innovation and sharing of knowledge is very important.

The recommendations are based on the framework of the structured dialogue for the preparation of the common agricultural policy (CAP) strategic plan. They follow the analysis of the “state of play, the needs and the priorities for agriculture and rural areas in Germany. The recommendations address the specific economic, environmental and social objectives of the future CAP”.

Details on the European Green Deal are here.

Early 2021, the European Joint Research Centre (JRC) published a paper on the electrification of heating and cooling. As a decarbonsation strategy, “the EL60 (32% heating and cooling electrified replacing fossil fuels) scenario seems to be the most ambitious electrification scenario that can be secured by today’s capacities”. However, based on the current capacities, this puts pressure on the grids particular in Austria, Finland and Latvia.

Many power systems can deal with higher heat and power demands from electrification of the sector. Especially heat pump capacity increases in the order of 1.1–1.6 TWth can be deployed. This would correspond to a heat pump share of 29–45% in space heating. 12 Member States could fully electrify without hickups. Three Member States could face some capacity issues, if they substitute 40–60% of fossil fuel technologies. An important enabler is the possibility to react to flexible electric demands.

The European Commission is forming a new Industrial Forum and calls for applications for the selection of members of the expert group.

The forum is part of the New Industrial Strategy for Europe. It is an inclusive and open mechanism for co-designing solutions with stakeholders. The task is to support the European Commission “in its systematic analysis of industrial ecosystems and in assessing the risks and needs of industry as it embarks on the digital and green transition, and the strengthening of its resilience.”

“The expert group will also contribute to the coordination of recovery efforts, as a forum for EU countries and industry to exchange best practices to transform industrial ecosystems.”

The Industrial Forum shall have up to 55 members from

A) Group C members

Industrial associations, NGOs, R&T organisations, trade unions and representatives of the financial and investment industries.

B) Group D members

National or regional EU member authorities.

C) Group C members

The European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

This current call concerns applications for type C members. Applications must be filed by January 4^th to this email address. The inaugural meeting of the Industrial Forum is planned for January 2021.

The call for application can be downloaded here.

Further information can be found here.

In 2018, biomass accounted for 10 % of gross final energy consumption within the EU28. Bioenergy saved 310 million tons of CO2eq. 56.6 % of the EU’s total renewable energy consumption is covered by bioenergy. This underlines that the renewable energies industries are vital for the European energy system.

Bioenergy usage has more than doubled since 2000. It contributes to all final usage forms of energy – heat, electricity and transport. Bioenergy is currently the largest renewable source in Europe and will remain so in the future. Thus, the industry is an “indispensable and unavoidable” companion of the European energy system.

The main sources for bioenergy are agricultural feedstock and forest streams. Since bioenergy is labor-intensive, jobs in solid biomass, biofuels, biogas and renewable municipal waste add up to 708,600 jobs and more than 50,000 business units. The turnover in bioenergy added up to EUR 57.6 billion in the EU-28. As a leader in bioenergy technologies and exporter of equipment and solutions, Europe strongly contributes to making the industry resilient to variances in the global value chains and national market distortions.

With ambitious climate goals for 2050, renewable energy sources are an important piece of Europe’s energy consumption mix. The report stresses that only an “ambitious and stable policy framework” can ensure the energy transition. The fundament must be set now, with renewable sources being the backbone of the EU energy mix.

Sources:

Bioenergy Europe

Bioenergy International

MEP Calenda brought forward a report on “A New Strategy for Europe”. The motion supports the development of a renewables value chain, especially for strategic considered industries for the EU. The European Parliament voted in favor.

The report can be found here.

A short presentation (Italian) can be found here.

Switch4Air is a podcast powered by Bioenergy Europe in collaboration with the European Pellet Counsel, the voice of the European wood pellet sector, covering especially biomass in heat application.

“The heating and cooling sector is responsible for 36% of GHG emissions and represents 40% of energy consumption in the EU. Moreover, almost 80% of H&C consumption is provided by fossil fuels. It is essential that higher RES penetration and increased energy efficiency become the key drivers behind the process of decarbonization – a process that must include bioheat, a readily available, affordable, and efficient solution. But, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, coherent measures and policies fostering real change must be implemented to immediate effect. The Switch4Air campaign has been developed to raise awareness on how bioenergy industry can contribute to the improvement of air quality.” www.switch4air.eu

Information provided by Bioenergy Europe:

European Forest Strategy – Council Conclusions on Forest Strategy were backed by Farm Ministers on November 16^th 2020. The Conclusions call on the Commission to come up with a post-2020 plan for the sector that serves wider policy aims on environment & climate, and is coherent with other long-term strategies and forest-related policies after 2020. They further call for a new “balanced & strengthened” post-2020 Forest Strategy. They emphasize the importance of healthy and resilient forests to the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the implementation of the European Green Deal. Member States also support an approach that addresses the environmental, financial & social dimensions of sustainability, taking into account the diversity of European Forests. They call on the EU’s executive to consider the SDGs as the overall guiding principle for the new EU Forest Strategy, while also taking into account the Green Deal as the new policy framework at EU level. The new Strategy needs to address the resilience & adaptation to climate change of established European forests, through sustainable management. It should also enhance the sector’s contribution to the bio- & circular economy, creating more green jobs and viable rural areas.

Together with the main forest-based industries association (CEPF, EUSTAFOR, COPA COGECA, EOS, CEPI)  Bioenergy Europe has signed a joint letter asking the European Commission not to further delay the publication of the Forest Strategy. According to the EU Green Deal the new EU Forest Strategy was expected to be published in 2020. The Commission decided to postpone its publication to Q1 2021 (this is part of the Commission work programme) but at the same time they have adopted the EU Biodiversity Strategy.