A short National Position Statement
Proposal To End Industrial Logging Of Native Forests And Their Use As Forest Bioenergy
The industrial logging of native forests and woodlands and the use of forest biomass as a fossil fuel substitute is disastrous for climate and biodiversity and should end, immediately.
Australia’s energy policies are poorly-geared to respond to the climate crisis. As well as lifting our ambition for reducing fossil fuel use we need new domestic and international forest protection policies and ecological restoration as a major element in climate policies.
Large scale forest biomass combustion is increasing atmospheric carbon faster than regrowing forests can draw it down. It is more emissive than burning coal. It is not carbon neutral within the timeframe the IPCC warns emissions must cease if climate disaster is to be avoided, that is, the next 10 to 12 years.
The IPCC states we must remove as much carbon as possible from the atmosphere in addition to stopping further emissions – within the next decade. The protection and, where practicable, the ecological restoration of biodiverse native forests will reduce emissions, and provide the most secure and immediately available means of large scale carbon drawdown and storage.
In Europe and the United States there is increasing alarm at the health and environmental impacts of burning forests for energy and biofuels, and at the financial incentives available to this industry which drive global deforestation and biodiversity loss. Nonetheless, in Australia, there is strong pressure to maintain current logging regimes as a basis for new large scale forest biomass industries envisaged to operate in both domestic and export markets.
Large areas of Australia’s forests have been cleared, some, but not all, irretrievably. Large tracts of current forests are severely degraded by past and current logging regimes and well below their carbon carrying capacities. Many forest species, once abundant, are now severely depleted.
Ten to twelve years to turn around a dangerously warming climate is a very short time span. We call on all politicians at Commonwealth and State levels and all candidates at coming elections to recognise the urgency of incorporating protection and restoration of native forests into energy policies and, when elected, to collaborate to effect that protection.
Specifically, we call for:
- an end to industrial native forest logging
- prohibition of the export of native forest biomass, and removal of incentives for its use for electricity and biofuels 1
- assistance for native forest protection and ecological restoration
1 Including repealing amendments in Part 4 of Schedule of 1 of the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment Bill 2015 reinstating native forest biomass as an eligible renewable energy source, i.e. attracting subsidies.
The industrial logging of native forests and woodlands and the use of forest biomass as a fossil fuel substitute is disastrous for climate and biodiversity.
Why Native Forest Logging And Clearing Must End And Forests Not Be Burnt For Energy
(Download pdf – 1.6MB)
Introduction to the evidence:
The Paris Climate Agreement that seeks to restrict global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees is not ideal,1 as 1°C is already too dangerous.2
‘Tipping points’ 3 that compound global warming (summer sea-ice-free Arctic conditions, loss of West Antarctic glaciers and a multi-metre sea-level rise) are likely to have been passed at less than 1°C .4 Current emission rates could activate other elements, compounding the rate and scale of temperature rise.5
Our carbon debt 6 is such that the aim must be for zero greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors within the next decade.7 At the same time, as much carbon-dioxide as possible must be removed from the atmosphere, referred to as Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR). 8
Natural systems are most efficient for CDR and must be protected from climate change impact to continue functioning. Where possible their resilience to climate change impact should be enhanced by ecological restoration.9
Emission reduction strategies focused on the energy and (more recently) transport sectors include an erroneous assumption that wood biomass combustion can be considered a carbon neutral fossil fuel substitute ‘because trees regrow’.10
The assumption ignores the need for immediate emission reduction. Reabsorption of released carbon can take decades to centuries as forests recover;11 in some instances forests might not fully recover.12
Trees logged for biomass which burnt immediately release carbon, would have instead continued to capture and store it in ever increasing volumes if left unlogged, for the rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size.13
Warnings of the danger of forest bioenergy that have been unheard, or unheeded are summarised in six points, below. 14
1. Emissions from forest biomass combustion at the smokestack exceed those of coal per unit of energy produced; it is not carbon neutral’.15
2. The opportunity cost of logging forests for bioenergy or fuel is the immediate loss of carbon stores and loss of capacity to draw carbon down from the atmosphere, referred to as CDR, i.e carbon dioxide removal.
3. Forest biomass for energy is the second major driver of forest logging and degradation 20
4. Nature Based Solutions: The need to protect and enhance the biological integrity of natural systems to improve resilience to climate change so that carbon dioxide removal can continue (CDR).
5. Flawed emission accounting creates a convention that forest bioenergy is renewable, thereby attracting misinformed social acceptance (social licence) and financial benefits
6. Alienation of scarce land resources to log and/or grow forest biomass feedstock
Further explication of the six points outlined above can be found by downloading the fully referenced 5 page document.