Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 43
43
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 217
Issue Biomass Strategy promptly, establishing risk-based approach for sustainable use and highest-risk feedstock quotas.
Recommendation
The Biomass Strategy, which was promised by the end of 2022, must now be issued as soon as possible. We recommend that the Strategy take a risk-based approach to ensuring the sustainability of biomass use, managing risks on a domestic and a global scale. In preparing the Strategy we recommend that the Government consider the risks associated with life-cycle carbon emissions, land-use trade-offs, impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem service provision, and competition with other uses of biomass, and consider the merits of establishing quotas for, or a moratorium on, the use of the highest risk feedstocks.
Government Response Summary
The government states the Biomass Strategy was published on August 10th and includes actions to strengthen sustainability criteria, covering GHG emissions, biodiversity, and feedstock origin, with a consultation planned for 2024. However, it does not explicitly commit to considering quotas or a moratorium.
Paragraph Reference:
217
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
Government published the Biomass Strategy on 10th August. Government manages potential risks associated with biomass use through strict biomass sustainability criteria, which is already in place in support schemes in the heat, transport, and power sectors. The strategy presented a series of actions government is minded to take to strengthen sustainability criteria for biomass, to further minimise risks associated with biomass use, regardless of its type and where it is sourced from. These actions cover a broad range of areas, including improvements to GHG emissions calculation methodologies to ensure consistency across sectors, strengthening protections for biodiversity and ecosystem services, and requiring 100% of woody biomass feedstocks to be proven sustainable, where not already mandatory. We intend to publish a consultation on these actions in 2024. Recognising that sustainable biomass is a limited resource with a wide variety of potential uses, the strategy presented a priority use assessment of biomass, to inform how biomass should be used across the economy over time to best support our net zero target.