Lisbon, March 21, 2025 (Lusa) - Millions of cubic metres of wood from European Union (EU) forests and plantations are being burned by the pulp and paper industry, indicates a report released on Friday.
The authors of the report estimate that the industry is responsible for burning 45 million cubic metres of wood from European forests every year.
Published on today's International Forests Day, the document is the responsibility of the international organisations "Biofuelwatch" and "Environmental Paper Network International", with the support of eight national environmental organisations (Sweden, Finland, Germany, Spain and Portugal).
The information was released today by the environmental association Quercus, one of the Portuguese organisations (in addition to Acréscimo and IRIS) that was part of the network that supported the report which, says the organisation, "exposes the extent to which the EU's main pulp producers generate and sell energy produced from burning wood extracted directly from forest holdings".
The report, explains Quercus in a statement, analyses the EU's five largest pulp producers - Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Germany and Spain - and concludes that, with the exception of Germany, the pulp and paper industry is the main driving force behind the bioenergy sector.
In the largest pulp-producing countries, the report estimates that "more than a fifth of the wood extracted directly from forest holdings that is burned for energy production can be attributed to the pulp industry, with an average of one cubic metre of wood being burned for every tonne of pulp produced".
According to the authors, the 45 million cubic metres of wood is equivalent to 17% of all primary wood biomass burned for energy production in the EU in 2021.
"Rather than being a sustainable, low-carbon and efficient use of biomass, the increase in biomass energy production capacity at pulp mills across the EU is resulting in ever greater amounts of wood being extracted from forests and plantations. This means more carbon emissions, not less, contributing to the alarming reduction in the EU's forest carbon sink," warns Almuth Ernsting, co-director of “Biofuelwatch”, quoted in the Quercus press release.
The authors of the report make three main recommendations to EU policymakers, one of which is to end subsidies, incentives and public funding for biomass energy production.
They also advocate increasing transparency and information about the supply chains and sources of biomass that pulp producers use, and that on the issue of energy demand by industry, production should be reduced rather than increasing energy generation from biomass.
Mateus Carvalho, from Environmental Paper Network International, also quoted in the statement, said that the sale of electricity to the public grid at subsidised prices is one of the main drivers for burning biomass in pulp mills.
He added: "But even if the subsidies ended, pulp and paper production would still require huge amounts of electricity and heat. Drastically reducing production levels, especially of short-lived products such as disposable packaging, is the most effective way to reduce the pulp industry's energy demand and, consequently, the amount of biomass extracted from forests and burned."
FP/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
