EUSTAFOR supports the European Bioenergy Day on 21 November

EUSTAFOR is joining an awareness campaign, called the European Bioenergy Day. The campaign, to be launched by the European Biomass Association (AEBIOM), has as its main objective to promote bioenergy. This public awareness and media campaign will aim to underpin　the 21 November 2017 as the symbolic day after which the EU’s fuel consumption for 2017 is based entirely on renewable bioenergy.

Starting on 21 November 2017, the campaign can be followed at http://www.europeanbioenergyday.eu and via Twitter @AEBIOM and also via the EUSTAFOR website.

“EUSTAFOR is joining the awareness campaign because it is important to highlight the role of bioenergy not only for climate change mitigation but also for forestry as it uses low-quality wood assortments,” says Executive Director Piotr Borkowski.

EUSTAFOR is engaging by providing the campaign with two case stories from Estonia and Finland, to be posted at the campaign’s website, and through social media. In the case of Estonia, wood is the largest alternative to non-renewables and the Estonian State Forest Management Centre (RMK) is a major supplier of energy wood in the country. The other case study comes from Lapland where Levi, Finland´s largest winter holiday resort, is heated with wood supplied by the state forest enterprise Metsähallitus.

“These two practical cases demonstrate the remarkable role European state forests can play in enabling a shift from fossil fuels to renewables, thereby contributing to the European Union’s efforts to meet its climate and energy targets,” says Mr. Borkowski.

Europe still relies on fossils

The European Bioenergy Day campaign makes use of original analogies to explain where the EU stands in the development of renewables and, in particular, bioenergy. By spreading the projection for Europe’s energy demand in 2017 across the calendar year, it makes clear that: Europe is still relying heavily on fossil fuels and nuclear energy for the first 299 days; Renewables follow with 66 days of clean energy; Bioenergy accounts for 41 days, starting on 21 November through to the end of the year.

The positive message, according to AEBIOM, is that since the introduction of the Renewable Energy Directive in 2008, this date has never come so early in the year. This encouraging outcome will be celebrated during the European Bioenergy Future Conference to take place in Brussels on 21-22 November 2017.

According to AEBIOM, the bioenergy sector should demonstrate an ambition to advance this date to October by 2030, hitting a renewable energy target of 35 % of the EU’s annual consumption, with bioenergy from biomass as a key driver.