Trees for Burning - The biomass controversy - Christopher Snowdon Summary

International carbon accounting frameworks allow emissions from burnt wood to be included in the carbon budget of the country in which the trees are grown rather than the country in which the wood is burnt. [...] The Climate Change Committee and the BEIS Committee have both said that the burning of wood pellets for energy production should only continue if BECCS captures and permanently stores the carbon produced under the North Sea. [...] If the wholesale price of electricity falls below the strike price, the generator is paid the difference. [...] According to the European Academies’ Sciences Advisory Council (2021), using wood pellets to generate electricity ‘is not effective in mitigating climate change and may even increase the risk of dangerous climate change.’ In the UK, the Climate Change Committee says that ‘sustained use of large-scale biomass generation is not compatible with the path to Net Zero’ (Climate Change Committee 2023: 36. [...] Far from internalising the externalities, the current system allows governments to completely ignore the externalities of this form of electricity generation, thereby blunting the price mechanism and distorting the market.