Select committee: Environmental Audit Committee

Recommendation 45

Fifth Report - Seeing the wood for the trees: the contribution of the forestry and timber sectors to biodiversity and net zero goals Published 19 Jul 2023 Paragraph 219

Environmental Audit Committee Sustainable timber and deforestation All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗

Recommendation (the committee's words)

The Government needs to manage risks associated with the sustainability of feedstock supply through its governance framework for biomass, which must be strengthened. Improvements should include: • All biomass used for large-scale power generation in the UK should be required to adhere to the sustainability criteria set by the UK governance framework. The Government should include in its Biomass Strategy a thorough review of the subsidy regime for biomass. • The woody biomass land criteria should stipulate that generators and participants must demonstrate that all of their woody biomass supplied is ‘legal and sustainable.’ • As soon as robust life-cycle carbon assessment methodologies are available, biomass sustainability requirements should include the complete accounting of the life-cycle carbon emissions of using a source of woody biomass, from the carbon stored in the forest, through to the stack emissions.

From: Environmental Audit Committee, Fifth Report - Seeing the wood for the trees: the contribution of the forestry and timber sectors to biodiversity and net zero goals (HC 637), paragraph 219, 19 July 2023

Government response

The government responded to the whole report on 15 December 2023 (deadline 19 September 2023).

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government agrees that forestry and timber will be crucial nature-based solutions for Net Zero and biodiversity, says it has "already acted or is planning action" on many recommendations, and sets out where it is working with industry and consulting rather than committing to the Committee's specific proposals.

On sub-targets for woodland types, the Government says it "could consider" them but that they "would not be statutory", and that a single undifferentiated target was set "to improve delivery confidence".
On a long-term domestic timber production target, it says setting one "would be challenging" because harvesting rates depend on factors such as global timber markets.
On the Timber in Construction Roadmap, it reports "good progress" and says it intends to publish "later in 2023".
On biomass, it says its Biomass Strategy sets out actions the Government is "minded to take" to strengthen sustainability criteria, "subject to consultation", and "intend[s] to publish a consultation" in 2024.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error