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Cleaning in Rapala County, Estonia (c) Karl Adami
Treasury Minister Kwasi Kwarteng is casting doubt on whether biomass energy makes any sense from an environmental or financial perspective.
Indeed, the Financial Times reports that at a cross-party backbench meeting of parliamentary ministers, Quaranting faced several questions about the UK’s heavy reliance on biomass energy, particularly from Drax Power Station. In response, Kwarteng expressed serious doubts about biomass energy’s potential to reduce carbon emissions, as well as its high cost and environmental impact.
Here are some of the speeches from the meeting:
“There is no point in getting it [wood pellets] From Louisiana. . . This is not sustainable. . . [and has] . . . High cost in terms of money and environment. . . [it] It makes no sense to me. “
“I clearly see the point where we can draw the line and talk [biomass] It’s not working, it’s not helping to reduce carbon emissions and so we need to stop. . . [a]I would say that we have not yet reached this stage.
Kwarting also said the government has “not really questioned” some areas of pellet sustainability, suggesting that the nation’s reliance on biomass is a business-as-usual approach that fails to incorporate new information resources. on its effects.
And it’s not just the British minister who has raised the issue of biomass. Earlier this year, the Climate Change Committee’s David Joffe said there were “significant challenges in ensuring the sustainability of biomass grown outside the UK” and that imported biomass “is not something the UK should rely on widely”. And Zac Goldsmith recently said there are “real problems” with burning wood for electricity.
Drax is also facing increasing pressure from outside the UK government. Weeks ago, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development agreed to further investigate complaints by environmental groups that Drax was guilty of greenwashing. And new evidence has been released that biomass imported from Estonia into the UK is in breach of the UK’s legally binding sustainability standards.
The writing on the wall is clear: biomass energy is not good for people or the planet and the UK must stop relying on it to meet net zero targets. Fortunately, the country has a great opportunity to make this change with its upcoming bioenergy strategy. Let’s see if the government listens to anyone…besides Drax.
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