EU agency warns over increased biomass use

EU energy ministers on Thursday emphasised that the use of biomass as an energy source should be increased, but the same day an EU agency launched a new report which also warned that too much biomass production could harm the environment.

“It needs to be done in a sustainable way,” said author of the report, Tobias Wiesenthal from the Copenhagen-based European Environment Agency (EEA).

In the report “How much bioenergy can Europe produce without harming the environment?” Mr Wiesenthal points out that the 2010 EU targets for the use of biomass across the bloc “can be met and even exceeded” but that “it had to be done the right way.”

The EU must manage the rise in the production of biomass in line with other policies and objectives it has, aiming to protect biodiversity and not producing more waste, he said in his report.

EU Observer