AFCA Submission To ARENA Bioenergy Roadmap

10 June, 2020 Type: | State:

Australian Forests and Climate Alliance (AFCA) Submission to ARENA Bioenergy Roadmap – 10 June 2020

Recommendations

  1. The ARENA Bioenergy Roadmap excludes forest derived bioenergy from consideration as an energy source in Australia’s future; for on- or off-shore consumption.
  2. Governments across Australia review and amend references to the use of native forest materials for fuel in legislation and regulation with a view to preventing this industry from taking hold and instead to protecting and regenerating our native forests.
  3. End industrial logging of native forests in Australia

 

Download FULL Submission (PDF 828 kb)

AFCA Submission To ARENA Bioenergy Roadmap – 10 June 2020

 

Opening Statement

The Australian Forests and Climate Alliance (AFCA) responds herein to ARENA’s call for submissions to the development of a Bioenergy Roadmap for Australia. The Australian Forests and Climate Alliance is comprised of 20 member non-government organisations.
Central to this response is a combined submission of AFCA and the Nature Conservation Council of NSW (NCC). We specifically address the role of forest derived bioenergy, which we believe should be excluded from the Bioenergy Roadmap.

AFCA adds in this extensive document more information and views to further contextualise and explore issues around the use of forest biomass for energy, additional to that contained in the combined AFCA and NCC submission.  An extensive list of references is supplied. This expansion of our contribution is flagged in the combined submission.

Conclusion

FDB harms the climate, harms forests, harms people and harms the clean energy transition. To avoid catastrophic global warming, we need to reduce emissions sharply and increase the uptake of carbon into natural ecosystems. Intact, mature and recovering native forests are our best hope for taking carbon out of the air.

It is incredibly exciting that Australia is moving to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. However, any engagement with FDB would be a gross misdirection of government subsidies and an assault on the climate. A roadmap that considers forest derived biomass in any form would derail, delay and undermine genuinely clean energy development. It would simultaneously be a great injustice to communities that love their bushland, workers who deserve sustainable industries and flora and fauna that we need to survive.

We must move to secure a genuinely sustainable future for subsequent generations. Energy from forest derived biomass will add to the problems we are setting our sights on overcoming. This bioenergy has no place in our roadmap to a solution.

Please also see: http://forestsandclimate.org.au/cms/wp-content/uploads/position-statement-against-forest-bioenergy.pdf