The European Commission’s attempt to bridge divisions between the Parliament and EU countries over forest biomass failed during talks earlier this week to revise the bloc’s renewable energy directive.
Arguing that Europe needs to regrow its carbon sinks in the fight against climate change, MEPs in September backed plans to exclude primary woody biomass from the renewable energy targets of the European Union, raising concern among member countries.
As an EU institution official with knowledge of the discussion said, member states were generally reluctant towards the Parliament’s proposal on the definition of ‘primary wood biomass’, supporting a looser definition allowing them to decide based on local circumstances.
A paper from the Swedish presidency of the EU Council, which represents the EU’s 27 member states in the negotiation, EU countries have been clear that the new EP- proposed definition of ‘primary woody biomass’ is not acceptable.
In line with the ‘cascading principle’ which allocates biomass in priority to wood-based products with the highest economic value, they, instead, suggested the ‘primary woody biomass’ definition to be limited to quality roundwood.
Due to the persistent disagreements over biomass, the three-way talks between the European Commission, EC, and the European Parliament that resumed on Tuesday quickly ended in deadlock.
An EU source who took part in the meeting said that the European Commission tried to find a middle ground between EC’s quality round wood definition and the EP’s primary woody biomass’ definition, suggesting that the EU’s green energy targets exclude the industrial grade round wood and the coarse woody debris, which would no longer be promoted as “renewable”.
The Council, however, refused the suggested compromise proposal, pushing the talks back to a lower technical level.
While the industry group Bioenergy Europe praised the Council’s opposition against, as they defined it, the biased and counterproductive definition of primary woody biomass proposed by the EP, others, such as the forest NGOs, were less pleased with the results that leave no room for maneuver.
