… BAD FOR THE CLIMATE & FOREST BIODIVERSITY

Markets For Change tells Bioenergy Australia Conference

Native forest biomass could become the new woodchipping, with all the controversy, if it is used for energy generation on a large scale as is being pushed by loggers and governments such as the Australian and Tasmanian governments, Markets For Change told the Bioenergy Australia Conference in Adelaide today.

“Logging and burning of native forests in vast volumes each year to produce electricity is not clean or green, in fact this would release massive amounts of carbon to the atmosphere whilst degrading biodiversity and other important forest values,” said Peg Putt, CEO 0f Markets For Change.

“The push is on for biomass burning of native forests to become the new woodchipping now that the woodchip export trade from natural forests has collapsed, but there are many preferable sources of bioenergy and Australia’s precious native forests and their wildlife need a respite,” she said.

“Native forest biomass was excluded from the Renewable Energy Target due to the climate impact of releasing massive forest carbon stores, together with the likely adverse impacts on biodiversity. Now the Abbott government is seeking to include it which would open up financial support to logging and burning our precious forests with the potential to undermine investment in solar and wind energy.”

“This is unacceptable and conservationists will fight such a travesty. We urge consumers to indicate to power retail companies that they will not buy the electricity from forest furnaces, and we will support genuine clean energy not an imposter that is really a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

“It is important to understand that logging and burning native forests is not carbon neutral, it releases huge amounts of stored carbon to the atmosphere that can take centuries to recover through regrowth. This is bad for the climate because we need to reduce emissions over the critical next decade or two, we can’t wait for many decades or even centuries simply to recover the stored carbon that was lost.”

“Yet many advocates ignore these climate facts and simply repeat a mantra that clearfelling and burning native forests is renewable and carbon neutral, when it actually has serious adverse environmental impacts,” Ms Putt concluded.
Peg Putt, CEO 0f Markets For Change