A new analysis has found an alarming discrepancy between reported production and consumption data for solid biomass energy across the Visegrád Group (V4) countries — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia — raising questions about the sustainability of biomass as a renewable energy source.
The research, conducted by Gabriella Szajkó, senior research associate at REKK, compared wood resource balance data from the Joint Research Centre with energy balance figures from Eurostat. The gap between the two — which may reflect illegal logging, unregistered wood fuel imports, use of non-fuelwood roundwood categories, agricultural biomass, household waste burning, and statistical inconsistencies — stood at between 33 and 56 per cent across the V4 from 2009 to 2017.
Three of the four V4 countries were found to be overusing their forests relative to reported net annual increments, with an unsustainability margin potentially reaching 52 per cent for the group combined.
The CO2 balance of wood-based removals and biomass combustion shifted from net negative to net positive in 2010, rising to an estimated 54–56 million metric tonnes of net emissions across the V4 by the early 2020s. CO2 emissions from biomass energy grew from 1.8 per cent to 14.2 per cent of the group's total greenhouse gas emissions over the period studied.
Policy forecasts for the V4 project a further loss of up to 40 per cent of carbon sequestration capacity from wood resources by 2030, alongside continued growth in biomass energy production.
The study attributes part of the trend to EU policy incentives, which have driven significant increases in solid biofuel use among electricity and heat producers. Primary solid biofuel use for energy transformation more than quadrupled in the V4, against a doubling across the broader EU. Household consumption of primary solid biofuels rose by more than 90 per cent in the V4 over the same period.
Szajkó called for a fundamental rethink of biomass energy policy. 'EU climate policy has been sending the wrong signals for too long, resulting in the excessive use of forest resources and undermining its commitment to achieving net zero by 2050,' she said. 'The situation is even worse in the V4 countries.'
The study urges designated authorities to overhaul monitoring, reporting, and verification rules for solid biomass, and calls on policymakers to develop a comprehensive approach to the forest-biomass-energy-climate nexus.
Source: CE Energy News
Data gap raises sustainability concerns over V4 biomass energy, study finds
