COP29 must not be another greenwashing event over the risks of biomass energy

Countries must find real solutions for climate action and climate finance and reject false solutions such as biomass energy, says the Biomass Action Network as the 29th Conference of the Parties (COP29) to the UN Climate Convention is set to open in Baku, Azerbaijan, on 11 November.

COP29: false solutions like biomass energy must be rejected

COP29 will focus on finance, as did the Biodiversity COP16 which was suspended last weekend due to the lack of agreement. Developed countries refuse to commit to sufficient financial support for developing countries. Instead, they promote false solutions like centralised (large scale) biomass energy.

That is why the Biomass Action Network calls on governments to firstly, eliminate subsidies and other government support for false solutions like forest biomass energy. Large scale bioenergy production causes biodiversity loss and triggers more emissions than fossil fuels, yet it is still heavily promoted by many governments, including through massive subsidy schemes.

“Governments at the Biodiversity Summit urged countries to avoid and/or minimise the negative impacts of climate action on biodiversity, prioritising protection and restoration of ecosystems such as forests,” says Peg Putt, co-coordinator of the Biomass Action Network:

All subsidies and other forms of government support for big biomass that relies on logging and burning huge quantities of wood should be phased out as soon as possible.

Carbon markets are NOT climate finance

Secondly, it says COP29 must reject carbon markets as climate finance, and instead provide real finance for real solutions. Faced with a profound lack of agreement on the delivery of public finance, the COP29 presidency has been pushing for a deal to legitimise and expand carbon markets.

Such a deal would also unlock significant additional investments in industrial bioenergy projects, while doing nothing to halt the climate crisis since offsets are a compensation for emissions only.

“Carbon markets should, per definition, never be seen as climate finance, as they add nothing. Financing bioenergy through carbon offsets means double trouble, it means supporting an environmentally harmful, false solution under a pretext that it will offset emissions elsewhere, while that offsetting will not even happen,” says Simone Lovera, Biomass Action Network’s policy advisor, who will attend the Climate COP29 in Baku.

Stop the seep of biomass energy into policy at COP29

Finally, COP29 must commit to exclude centralised biomass energy generation, co-firing biomass with coal and other false solutions from national climate policies. COP29 will also set the tone for the new Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs) that countries must present in the coming months.

It is feared many NDCs will be full of false solutions, including large-scale bioenergy, which is already having a devastating impact on both Northern and tropical forests, including in key forest countries like Brazil and Indonesia.

“The policy of the Indonesian government to promote co-firing of coal with biomass is putting 2.3 million hectares of forests at risk. Swapping out some coal for some wood is a false solution with no emissions reduction benefit. It leads to serious negative consequences for the climate, biodiversity, and Indigenous Peoples and local communities, it lacks a rights-based approach, and is justified only by abusing a carbon accounting loophole” says Amalya Reza of Trend Asia, one of Biomass Action Network’s Indonesian member groups, who will be in Baku as well.

Featured image via the Canary