Biomass Energy Enigma: A Perplexing Conundrum of Environmental Benefits versus Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The European Union's Renewable Energy Directive III (RED III) is poised to significantly impact wood-burning as a source of heat, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe where biomass, including wood, is a common heating fuel.
The directive aims to increase the EU's renewable energy targets, requiring at least 42.5% renewable energy in gross final energy consumption by 2030, with an ideal goal of 45%. This includes biomass, but also wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biogas.
Since buildings account for about 40% of EU energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions, RED III targets heating and cooling renewables in the building sector as a crucial decarbonization pathway.
The directive acknowledges varying feasibility of renewable heating technologies across different building types and regions, requiring assessments and public authority oversight for exemptions. This is particularly relevant for wood-burning systems, especially in older or rural buildings.
RED III reforms also affect greenhouse gas certificate markets and biomethane pricing, indicating that regulatory tightening will alter incentives around renewable fuels. While this is described more for biomethane markets in Germany, similar pressures may influence biomass usage economics elsewhere.
The wood-energy sector is discussed in the context of sustainable EU forest management and energy security. RED III’s framework likely pushes toward sustainable sourcing and efficient use of wood biomass to ensure it contributes positively to Europe's climate goals without risking deforestation or resource depletion.
In Central and Eastern Europe, where wood is traditionally a major heating source, these implications mean a push to improve the sustainability and efficiency of wood-burning heating systems. There will be increased regulatory scrutiny and potential need for modernization or replacement of outdated, polluting wood stoves. Integration of wood biomass within a broader renewable energy strategy that also promotes solar, geothermal, and other renewables for heating is also expected.
Possible economic impacts from evolving subsidy schemes, emissions trading, or certification requirements tied to renewable heating fuels are also on the horizon. Ensuring the widespread availability of affordable clean energy solutions for householders is a cornerstone of the EU’s decarbonisation goal.
However, without targeted investment in insulation, clean heating technologies, and financial assistance, low-income families will continue to bear the highest costs in terms of energy affordability and health impacts from air pollution. The concept of a just heat transition refers to ensuring affordable and clean energy solutions for householders.
The broad classification of wood-burning as renewable bioenergy has led to perversities such as the UK's Drax power station importing wood fuel from primary forests and old-growth forests in the US and Canada. A key challenge of biomass regulation is that much of the implementation is left to national governments.
By May 2025, EU member states must complete the transposition of the latest revision of the EU's renewable energy directive (RED III). The target of the new law includes ramping up the share of renewable energy in heating and cooling in buildings, with an indicative target of 49% by 2030.
In over half of Europe's cities, the residential sector is the single biggest source of PM2.5 emissions. Without appropriate policy responses tailored to the local context, the human cost of poor air quality due to biomass combustion could be considerable, with the EU's 10% most-polluted regions suffering 25% of the burden of mortality attributable to air pollution.
Concerns have been raised about the degree of consultation with subnational governments and other groups regarding the SCF. Effective policy responses must be appropriately tailored to the local context, and "set out appropriate and concrete actions for each region."
Martin Pigeon, campaigner at the Brussels-based forest protection NGO Fern, states that theoretically, there are only two specific use cases for burning forestry and wood-processing residues that could be considered as sustainable from a carbon emissions perspective.
In Hungary, 30% of homes use firewood for heating, and half of these households have only firewood heating. The other half uses firewood and gas as complementary heating methods.
In 2023, 41 million EU citizens (9.3% of the total population) could not afford adequate heating, an increase from 30.8 million in 2021. A significant number of provisions for decarbonising heating and cooling are included in legislation brought forward under the European Green Deal.
The extension of carbon pricing to buildings and transport under the emissions trading system (ETS2) will be directed into the Social Climate Fund (SCF), an 86-billion-euro fund to alleviate energy and transport poverty.
The ecodesign directive sets energy efficiency and environmental performance requirements for products, including biomass heaters. A "harm reduction" approach may be most appropriate for staged reform of EU policy on biomass.
- The European Union's Renewable Energy Directive III (RED III) aims to increase the EU's renewable energy targets, with an ideal goal of 45%, including biomass, wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biogas.
- In the building sector, RED III targets heating and cooling renewables as a crucial decarbonization pathway, recognizing varying feasibility of renewable heating technologies across different building types and regions.
- Central and Eastern Europe, where wood is traditionally a major heating source, will see implications such as a push for sustainability and efficiency of wood-burning heating systems, with increased regulatory scrutiny and potential need for modernization or replacement of outdated, polluting wood stoves.
- Economic impacts from evolving subsidy schemes, emissions trading, or certification requirements tied to renewable heating fuels are also on the horizon, with ensuring the widespread availability of affordable clean energy solutions for householders being a cornerstone of the EU’s decarbonization goal.
- Concerns have been raised about the degree of consultation with subnational governments and other groups regarding the SCF, emphasizing the need for policies to be appropriately tailored to the local context.
- Martin Pigeon, campaigner at the Brussels-based forest protection NGO Fern, states that theoretically, there are only two specific use cases for burning forestry and wood-processing residues that could be considered as sustainable from a carbon emissions perspective.
- Without targeted investment in insulation, clean heating technologies, and financial assistance, low-income families will continue to bear the highest costs in terms of energy affordability and health impacts from air pollution, reinforcing the need for a just heat transition.
