Burning trees as climate mitigation: A resort to the Court: Euractive

"EU demand for wood pellets has increased forest harvesting for fuel, including clear-cutting fragile boreal forests in the EU and Canada, and wetland hardwood forests of the US South, write Jean-Pascal van Ypersele and Mary S. Booth. [McBeth / Flickr]

There is no debate that burning wood for energy emits more greenhouse gases per unit of energy than burning fossil fuels. Yet the EU’s renewable energy directive continues to uphold that burning forest wood is “carbon neutral,” write Jean-Pascal van Ypersele and Mary S. Booth.

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele is a climate scientist and professor at Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL).  He is former vice-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2008-2015). Mary S. Booth is the director at the Partnership for Policy Integrity (PPI), an organisation promoting science-based policies to protect air, water, ecosystems, and the climate.

As the UN’s International Day of Forests approaches (March 21), it’s a good time to focus on the role of forests in fighting climate change.

But given the obvious climate and ecosystem benefits of protecting and expanding forests, people might well ask, why does the EU’s flagship policy on climate, the new Renewable Energy Directive (REDII) promote logging and burning forests for energy?

This question lies at the heart of a suit filed this month in the Court of Justice of the European Union on behalf of six plaintiffs from the EU and the US.

The suit is necessary because the policy process, which should have protected people, ecosystems, and the climate, has failed. There is no debate that burning wood for energy emits more greenhouse gases per unit energy than burning fossil fuels.

And there is no debate that EU demand for wood pellet fuel has increased forest harvesting for fuel, including clear-cutting fragile boreal forests in the EU and Canada, and wetland hardwood forests of the US South."

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EU dragged to court for backing forest biomass as ‘renewable energy’

A group of plaintiffs from Estonia, France, Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, Sweden, and the US are filing a lawsuit against the European Union on Monday (4 March) to challenge the inclusion of forest biomass in the bloc’s renewable energy directive.

Read Euractive article 

DISCLAIMER: All opinions in this column reflect the views of the author(s), not of EURACTIV.COM Ltd.

By Jean Pascal van Ypersele and Mary S. Booth

 Mar 20, 2019


See also:

A record share of Australians say humans cause climate change: poll: SMH

Want to Build a Stronger Climate Movement? Integrate. :NexusMedia

"Dr. Robert Bullard, a professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University in Houston, believes that big green groups need to do more to support environmental justice groups, which treat pollution not as an isolated problem, but as part of a larger constellation of issues that includes poverty, discrimination and political marginalization."

"We saw that in Hurricane Katrina when we didn’t take care of the levees in the lowest-income communities. That’s obvious to many communities on the ground who are facing the ravages of climate right now. For them, it’s not a debate. It’s not theory. It’s real. For workers who work outside, they know it’s getting hotter. They know it’s more difficult to work outside, and they know that if it’s too hot to work, or if it’s raining every day, they can’t do their job, and they’re losing money. It’s not a matter of whether or not climate change is real. They know it’s real."

Read the original Nexus story 

Related: 

The World's Poor are Hurt Not Helped by Fossil Fuel Subsidies

 

#environmentaljustice   #environment   #workers   #climateactivism   #climatejustice   

Public Money Propping Up Fossil Fuels: Market Forces

Your Australian taxes funding fossil fuels

"Each year, the Australian government spends billions of dollars of your money on programs that encourage more coal, gas and oil to be extracted and burned. Market Forces estimates that tax-based fossil fuel subsidies cost almost $12 billion a year federally. This includes subsidies that support both the production and use of fossil fuels.

But tax-based subsidies aren’t the only government financial backing for fossil fuels. Direct handouts and contributions to the industry are doled out at both federal and state levels. 

On top of this, public money is used to finance fossil fuels through our national export credit agency EFIC, as well as our involvement with international financial institutions.
Australia has built a bad reputation as one of the world’s biggest backers of the dirty fossil fuel industry, a stance made clear at the 2015 Paris climate talks when it refused to sign an agreement that would phase out fossil fuel subsidies. 

This came despite Australia having committed on multiple occasions to phase out “inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.”

Your Australian taxes are funding fossil fuels.

Read the Market Forces article

 Related:

The World's Poor are Hurt Not Helped by Fossil Fuel Subsidies

#fossil fuel industry  #fossil fuel subsidies  #fossil fuel subsidies, poverty  #climate action   #Australia,  

The World's Poor are Hurt Not Helped by Fossil Fuel Subsidies : GMO

Vote for my climate

"Governments argue that fossil fuel subsidies are designed to help the poorest members of society, however, this is not borne out by the research.  The true beneficiaries of these subsidies are wealthier people and wealthier nations not the poor.
According to an IEA report, more than 85 percent of these subsidies go to middle and higher end income earners while only 8 percent of the aid is reaching the poorest 20 percent. These subsidies encourage energy consumption as people with the lowest incomes tend to be lower energy users and rarely drive.
"Fossil-fuel subsidies as presently constituted tend to be regressive, disproportionately benefiting higher income groups that can afford higher levels of fuel consumption," the report said. 'Social welfare programs are a more effective and less distortionary way of helping the poor than energy subsidies.' "

Read the Green Market Oracle story

#fossil fuel subsidies   #climate catastrophe  #poverty   #renewable energy  #100% renewable energy  #electricity #Australia

Bering Sea Appears Largely Ice-Free from NOAA-20

Bering Sea

 
"On April 1, 2014, Suomi-NPP captured the image on the left, which shows much of the Bering and Chukchi seas covered in ice. The Arctic sea ice extent for 2014 was fairly typical, reaching its maximum on March 21, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. In contrast, the NOAA-20 image on the right shows a largely ice-free area from the coast of the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge to the Bering Strait."

Read the complete original NOAA article

How climate change will affect your mortgage: SMH

Economic impact of climate change

In ordinary times, a person standing up to make a statement of the bleeding obvious isn’t news.

But the times, my friends, are anything but ordinary.

And in these times, when a person stands up and says climate change will have an inevitable impact on our economy, that is news.

Read the full SMH story

See also Port Macquarie map after a 7m sea rise 

Port Macquarie after a 7m sea level rise. Insurance risks affect property values now.

Port Macquarie with 7m sea level rise: Click to enlarge.

• We are looking more and more unlikely to prevent global heating.

• Scientists are predicting the melting of the ice covering Greenland  with a subsequent sea level rise of 7m.

• This rise does not factor in sea rise from the melting of Antarctica and other ice.

• Already many properties and infrastructures are likely to flood when a high tide is combined with high local rainfall. What were a hundred year rainfall events are now ten year events.

• The frequency of high rainfall events will increase with global heating and more and more severe hurricanes are predicted because of warmer seas.

• Low coastal areas will also be subjected to severe storm surges.

• Would you buy a property likely to be inundated in twenty years, fifty years, a hundred years? Many wouldn't. Even the perception of possible inundation will greatly affect property values. Insurers are already reluctant to insure many properties that were once only likely to flood every 100 years.

• When certain properties are in less demand their value falls.

• Would you buy a property with a value likely to fall?

•  The view of Port Macquarie above shows areas likely to be inundated by even a 7m sea level rise. Note the flooding of infrastructure and roads. Water supply will be affected. How could levees hold back such an onslaught?

• Property above a 10m rise will become highly sought after and will greatly rise in value. Property able to be accessed by road will increase in value but properties isolated by sea rise will lose value. New, costly road routes above the Hastings River floodplain will be required. Will NSW be able to afford to update all its infrastructure? Of course local government will be raising rates in an attempt to maintain infrastructure.

Isaac Cordal sculpture depicting politicians discussing global warming

Learn more about how sea rise inundation will affect Australian property.

Click here to go to Coastal Risk Australia site

Related: 'Retreat' Is Not An Option As A California Beach Town Plans For Rising Seas: NPR 

• 

  NASA: Earth’s vital signs: Sea level

  An indicator of current global sea level as measured by satellites; updated monthly.

#inundation  #sea rise  #searise  #climatecrisis  #climatechange  #ice  #melting ice  #insurancerisk  #floods  #climate catastrophe  #Port Macquarie