Attend WPAC’s annual conference, September 22-23, 2026! This year’s theme, Building Canada Stronger: Navigating the Global Wood Pellet Transition, covers securing supply, resilient energy and next-gen bioenergy. Day 1, Tuesday, September 22, 2026, focuses on the global outlook, policy and supply foundations. …There are still sponsorship spots available for the conference—Canada’s largest gathering of our industry. This event brings together key decision-makers from across Canada and global markets, offering a unique opportunity to increase your visibility, connect with partners, and strengthen your position in the sector. It’s also an opportunity to support WPAC’s advocacy, safety initiatives and industry-wide technical leadership in Canada and around the world.
Our warming world is set to enter an 
The Drax power plant in North Yorkshire received record subsidies of almost £1bn for burning trees to generate electricity in 2025, a climate thinktank has calculated. The company was paid £999m last year for generating about 4.5% of Great Britain’s electricity from its biomass plant, costing each household £13 a year, according to analysts at Ember. The power plant was able to claim £2.7m a day from energy bills in part by increasing its power generation by about 2% from the year before – but mostly due to the rising payouts from a legacy renewables support scheme. …The Guardian revealed last November that forestry experts believed the company was burning 250-year-old trees sourced from some of Canada’s oldest forests as recently as last summer. …The government has already halved the subsidies available to Drax. …Drax will have to switch to using woody biomass from 100% sustainable sources, up from the current level of 70%. 
For more than a decade scientists have documented how Antarctic sea ice has been retreating because of human-caused climate change. Now a team of Canadian and Chilean scientists is returning to Punta Arenas, Chile from a 14-day expedition on an icebreaker with data that will contribute to understanding how the continent’s ice, oceans and ecosystems are changing and how much glacier melt is accelerating. …Understanding climate change in Antarctica is important because it holds about 90 per cent of the world’s glacier ice, so what happens here will have major effects on the rest of the world, said B.C. scientist Thomas James. He’s the chief scientist of the expedition with the Geological Survey of Canada. …With this data, scientists can begin to understand how much human-caused global warming is changing the environment over time.
With the April 1, 2026, deadline for the Alberta-Ottawa memorandum of understanding fast approaching, leading climate policy experts are calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to restore the strength and integrity of Canada’s industrial carbon pricing system to increase competitiveness and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The 
A key plank of Canadian Prime Minister Carney’s climate plan will likely miss its target implementation date, industry sources said, raising new doubts about Canada meeting its environmental goals in the face of higher oil prices and uncertain US trade policy. Carney, a former UN climate envoy, committed last fall to negotiating a stronger industrial carbon pricing policy with Alberta by April 1. He is counting on a strengthened pollution pricing scheme to keep Canada’s emission reduction targets on track after rolling back many of his predecessor Trudeau’s climate policies to restore friendlier relations with the oil-and-gas producing province and prioritize economic growth. Two industry sources say these negotiations have been challenging, and that no deal will be struck by the April 1 deadline because large oil sands companies are pushing back on parts of the federal proposal. …Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson has acknowledged there may be a slight delay.
OLMYPIA, Washington – Washington state is poised to significantly expand its efforts to combat climate change with a proposed agreement to link its carbon market with those of California and Quebec. The move, announced Tuesday by the Washington Department of Ecology, aims to stabilize and reduce the costs associated with decarbonizing the state’s economy. The draft linkage agreement is now open for public comment until May 1, 2026, with the shared market potentially launching as early as 2027. This collaboration represents a major step forward in regional climate action, building upon Washington’s 2021 Climate Commitment Act. …The linkage would allow businesses in all three jurisdictions to participate in joint auctions and trade carbon allowances freely. This expanded market is expected to stabilize Washington’s relatively new and more expensive carbon market, as California and Quebec have been operating linked markets since 2014. While aligning with California and Quebec, Washington maintains distinct climate goals. 
Welcome to the Wood Pellet Association of Canada’s Spring 2026 newsletter. We hope you enjoy reading it, and we welcome your feedback.
Drax Group is launching a strategic review of its Canadian pellet operations due to a constrained fiber market and low margins. …CEO Will Gardiner discussed the company’s changing pellet production strategy. …“Our US business is fundamentally part of our UK supply chain. That business is doing very well As you will have seen, our Canadian business is more challenged, and we’ve been talking about this for some time as margins have come down due to fiber costs rising in Canada more rapidly than indexed power prices in Asia. As we noted last year, this dynamic contributed to the decision we’ve made to close one of our pellet plants in Williams Lake towards the end of last year.” As a result, Drax is not currently expecting to commit any additional capital to the pellet production segment, including the paused pellet plant planned for development in Longview, Washington.
Canada should ensure its ‘project of national interest’ designation is helping build competitive clean industries, starting with four key focus areas, according to a new report from the 
Wekweètì’s senior administrative officer is hoping to get a few million dollars from both the territorial and federal governments to support a biomass district heating project in the community. Fred Behrens said he recently found opportunities to apply for money from the territorial government’s GHG Grant Program and the federal government’s Build Communities Strong Fund for the project. It involves setting up a heat plant across from the community government office in Wekweètì, which is 200 kilometres north of Yellowknife and home to about 100 people. The space will store wood chips and contain three 300-kilowatt biomass boilers that’ll pump heat to 44 homes and 11 institutional buildings through a network of underground pipes. Behrens said the system would be fueled using material gathered from forest thinning and wildfire prevention work around the community. The boilers would also be connected to the community’s diesel generators, using their exhaust as a source of heat too. 
A company building two of Canada’s largest wood pellet mills says it will rely on a steady diet of trees logged in forests recently burned by wildfires. Roughly five million trees will have to come down each year to feed the two northern Alberta mills, which Powerwood Canada Corp. plans to build near the communities of La Crête and High Level. The company claims that wildfires create nightmarish landscapes and that logging such forests as fast as possible is key to restoring their health. But scientists counter that burned forests are important for biodiversity and that aggressively logging them spells disaster for plants and animals that rely on burned landscapes to flourish. Powerwood CEO David Peters said that in addition to northern Alberta the company is eyeing other “brownfield” logging opportunities in British Columbia and in Eastern Canada due to the significant number of wildfires in recent years.
The Nova Scotia government has issued a tender to convert five public buildings to wood heat systems — a move one member of the forestry sector says will have widespread benefits. The tender targets heating infrastructure at the Nova Scotia Community College’s Kingstec campus, Roseway Hospital in Shelburne, Digby General Hospital, Soldiers Memorial Hospital in Middleton, and St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish. …Successful bidders will also be responsible for procuring the wood fuel. The province stated in the tender documents that it “expects the focus of wood procurement to be from small private woodlots,” stipulating that 100 per cent of the lower-grade primary wood fuel must be harvested within Nova Scotia. …Marcus Zwicker, Forest Nova Scotia, added that requiring boilers to be fed with Nova Scotia product opens up new markets for local forestry contractors and woodlot owners while ensuring cheaper wood cannot be brought in from outside jurisdictions.
NOVA SCOTIA — The Province continues to support the forestry sector by making wood heat and building materials a priority in public buildings. A request for proposals issued Thursday, May 14, will see five buildings converted to heating systems that use local wood products. “We are seizing an opportunity to prioritize a local product from our forestry sector that also makes our province more self-reliant and energy secure,” said Public Works Minister Fred Tilley. “By using more local wood products, we are creating jobs, growing our economy and creating a brighter future for Nova Scotia.” …This is the first major project under the government’s wood initiative announced in July 2025. The deadline for submissions is June 24. Using wood products aligns with the Nova Scotia Loyal program, reduces reliance on imports and enhances export markets. It also supports the forestry sector, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and helps the province move to a low-carbon economy.
MONTRÉAL – With global warming, rainfall is increasingly falling in short, intense, concentrated bursts separated by longer dry periods, and these changes could have a potentially devastating effect on the planet. These are the conclusions of a new study co‑authored by Corey Lesk, at the Université du Québec à Montréal, and Justin S. Mankin, at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire. … They observed that regardless of the total amount of water received annually, this new rainfall regime alters how precipitation is absorbed by the soil and promotes greater aridity across the Earth’s surface. “Drought is often measured by what is lacking–the total amount of rainfall–but how precipitation falls is just as important,” explains Professor Corey Lesk. “This new type of rainfall regime leads to increased evaporation at the land surface, limiting the soil’s ability to retain moisture, and thus reducing the amount of water available on land for human populations and ecosystems.”
THUNDER BAY — The Ontario government is investing $5.5 million to help Greenwater Technology produce renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel using mill by-products and underused wood. This investment will support new opportunities for made-in-Ontario forest products, create new revenue streams to drive growth in forestry and empower the aviation and transportation industries to adopt sustainable fuels. As part of the government’s plan to protect Ontario, the government is making strategic investments to help forest sector businesses adapt, compete and grow to stay resilient in the face of U.S. tariffs. …After bringing the technology to market, Greenwater plans to integrate biofuel plants at anchor mills, providing an on-site use for forest biomass that would increase productivity, strengthen forestry supply chains and generate new revenue streams.
A European energy giant Octopus Energy Generation Ltd. will spend as much as $6 billion to build and operate a renewable energy park in Nova Scotia. Octopus plans to use biomass …from forest-based industries to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) it will sell to European customers. The processing for Nova Sustainable Fuels, as the Canadian subsidiary is known, will be done at a to-be-constructed renewable energy park in Goldboro, N.S. The site, estimated to cost between $4 billion and $6 billion, is expected to take about three years to build and have a 50-year lifespan. …With airlines seeking to decarbonize, the World Economic Forum reported in 2025 that the global demand for SAF is projected to grow exponentially, reaching 17 million tonnes annually by 2030. That represents four to five per cent of total jet fuel consumption. Parsons said the foundation of the project is based on supplying SAF to European markets.
LONDON and SAN FRANCISCO – Octopus Energy Generation, one of Europe’s leading renewables investors, is ramping up efforts to slash CO₂ pollution at scale – inking a major US deal that will help remove up to 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air. Octopus’s fund management team is set to invest $500 million in afforestation and reforestation projects in the US developed by public benefit and climate technology company Living Carbon. On top of that, Octopus has put nearly $13 million into Living Carbon’s fast-growing, cutting-edge carbon removal development business. …Across the US, roughly 130 million acres of land lie degraded and could be reforested. …The locations include old mining sites and worn-out farmland, transforming these spaces into CO₂-absorbing sinks that slash emissions and combat climate change. These projects will also have a host of additional benefits: restoring wildlife habitats, improving water quality, strengthening soils, and supporting local economies in rural communities.
Climate change is expected to alter the extent and severity of forest pest damage, with substantial economic and ecological consequences, but predicting future pest impacts is challenging. Here we use 20 years of data to assess how bioclimatic and biotic factors have influenced forest damage by 30 high-impact pest species and to identify ecological signals in those relationships. We found consistency in pest damage responses to maximum temperature in the warmest month, including recent average conditions and shifts from a historical baseline. Mean damage from focal pest species tends to be higher in regions with moderate maximum temperatures and in regions with faster rates of warming. In certain cases, the direction and magnitude of relationships between climate and forest damage vary by pest guild, native status and region of occurrence. Our findings provide empirical support for expectations of climate-induced stress to host trees and temperature-boosted pest performance, leading to increased pest damage in future forests.
For more than 30 years, the United Nations World Meteorological Organization has told us how terrible things are getting with global climate change. Their annual “State of the Climate” report is a compendium of climate change facts and figures collected throughout the previous 365 days. It’s an authoritative look at the state of our global climate and its increasingly precarious condition. …This year’s edition, covering 2025, is out today. The findings are stark, even frightening. But, like every year, it also feels like a bit of a rehash. …The fact that the past 11 years were the hottest on record? Yawn. The announcement that greenhouse gases in the air are at unprecedented levels for all of human history? Wake me when you’ve got something new to report. …The findings should be jarring reminders of planetary vital signs flashing red. But similar observations were made last year … and the year before that.
WASHINGTON — The Carbon Business Council announced the launch of the Direct Storage of Biomass (DSB) Coalition, a new industry working group bringing together leading companies to advance understanding, credibility, and responsible deployment of direct biomass storage as a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) pathway. Direct storage of biomass, also referred to as terrestrial storage of biomass, involves durably storing organic material such as waste wood from forests, agricultural residues like corn stover, biochar, or other plant and biological matter. Storing these organic residues allow the carbon previously absorbed by the biomass to be durably locked out of the active carbon cycle. The biomass can be safely buried, stored deep underground in sealed reservoirs, wells or other containers. DSB can deliver durable atmospheric carbon removal while leveraging existing forestry, agricultural, and biomass-handling infrastructure. …The DSB Coalition is part of the Carbon Business Council’s broader initiative to scale carbon removal across air, land, rock, and water. 
President Trump has invited farmers and biofuels producers to the White House for a big event next week as the industry awaits the government’s announcement on mandates for the fuel additives. The “celebration of agriculture” event is scheduled for March 27. The invitation said: “Later this month, following National Agriculture Week, President Trump plans to host hundreds of farmers and ranchers from around the country on the South Lawn to shine a spotlight on the men and women growing our food, fiber, and fuel.” The US Environmental Protection Agency’s decision on biofuels is expected around the end of March. The renewable volume obligations, or RVOs, mandate how much biofuel, such as corn-based ethanol and biodiesel, must be blended into the nation’s fuel supply. Next week’s meeting could have an impact on the markets amid speculation on the RVO decision coming later this month.
Three years ago, two big new wood-pellet manufacturing plants were proposed along the Washington coast — the first of their kind in the Pacific Northwest. The British utility Drax planned a facility in Longview next to the Columbia River. Another company, Pacific Northwest Renewable Energy Project (PNWRE), proposed a similar plant in Hoquiam, Grays Harbor County. These plans are now unraveling. Last year, Drax suspended work on its Longview plant, citing weak demand for wood pellets it planned to export to overseas power plants. The year before, Enviva, Drax’s biggest competitor declared bankruptcy… What we’re learning is the wood pellet industry can’t compete without extensive subsidies. …These adverse economic headwinds should serve as a warning sign… Most likely, the project will fail economically, saddling Grays Harbor with a costly cleanup project instead of providing the promise of new jobs or local revenue. It would be better to cut our losses now — before this doomed project is built. [A Seattle Times subscription is required for full access]
SEATTLE — Mast Reforestation today announced that less than six weeks after issuance, it has sold 100% of the 4,277 biomass burial carbon removal credits from Mast Wood Preserve MT1, its pioneering post-wildfire restoration project in southern Montana. New buyers include Bain & Company, a global management consulting firm, and BMO, a North American financial institution, joining earlier participants including Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), CNaught, a major corporate buyer advised by SE Advisory Services, Muir AI, and others. The sell-out follows MT1’s January 2026 issuance under the Puro.earth registry, which represented the largest issuance to date under Puro.earth’s Terrestrial Storage of Biomass (TSB) methodology and one of the fastest project development timelines globally for a carbon removal project, at just nine months. “High-integrity carbon removal is an important part of Bain’s strategy to address residual emissions while helping scale the climate solutions the world needs,” said Sam Israelit, Partner and Chief Sustainability Officer, Bain & Company.
A bill aimed at making Louisiana more enticing to the wood pellet industry has sailed through the state Legislature. House Bill 670 won unanimous approval in the Louisiana House and Senate and was granted final passage on Wednesday (May 27). It would ease regulations for pellet manufacturers while directing state support toward workforce development, financial incentives and infrastructure improvements designed to meet the industry’s needs. The industry has come under fire for repeatedly breaking air pollution rules in Louisiana and Mississippi and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom, where most of the pellets are burned to produce energy marketed as “sustainable biomass.” The bill’s supporters admitted they knew little about the industry but backed the measure in hopes of reviving the state’s struggling logging sector. …“This bill uses taxpayer money to support a foreign industry and makes it easier for them to pollute Louisianians’ air and water,” said the Dogwood Alliance. 
The Louisiana House of Representatives on May 13 voted unanimously to approve a bill that aims to benefit the state’s wood pellet manufacturing industry. Also on May 13, the bill reported favorably out of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and International Affairs. The legislation now awaits action from the Louisiana Senate. The bill, HB 670, was introduced in late February by state Rep. Charles Owen and amended twice as it moved through House committees. It aims to benefit the state’s wood pellet manufacturing industry by streamlining permitting, developing a skilled workforce and facilitating the efficient transportation and export of wood pellets. The bill, as amended, allows Louisiana Economic Development, a cabinet-level agency focused on business growth, to support the recruitment, retention, and expansion of wood pellet manufacturing facilities in this state within existing statutory authority and subject to the availability of funds. 
HAYWARD, Wis. – A new refinery planned for Hayward will convert wood into sustainable aviation fuel, using waste wood, such as scrap wood or invasive species. Hayward companies FutureWood and Johnson Timber Corporation will source and process the wood, while Synthec Fuels will handle the fuel refining process. President of FutureWood DJ Aderman says the facility will harness products not currently utilized in the forestry industry. “What’s really cool about this is we’re gonna use a lot of mill residuals. We’re gonna use a lot of products that we’re not currently using right now, unmerchable tops, species that have no or little value,” said Aderman. Last week, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers signed the Forestry Revitalization Act, which approved up to $120 million in tax credits for the $1.7 billion project. The legislation aims to bolster the forestry industry, which has seen major downturns due to mill closures in recent years.
LOUISIANA — Legislation to expand wood pellet manufacturing in Louisiana is gaining traction despite concerns over the industry’s connection to underground carbon storage, which has attracted a growing number of critics among state lawmakers. Louisiana is a burgeoning producer of wood pellets, which have been branded as a sustainable alternative to coal for generating electricity in overseas markets. As of 2023, mills in the South produced about 85% of the America’s wood pellet exports, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Reps. Chuck Owen, R-Rosepine, and Rodney Schamerhorn, R-Hornbeck, are carrying the proposed Louisiana Wood Pellet Manufacturing Strengthening Act. It directs the Louisiana Economic Development agency to promote the expansion of the industry throughout the state. …Legislators who have become hostile to carbon dioxide sequestration projects in their local districts openly disagree with economic development officials on whether the wood pellet industry even needs to store the CO2 they generate.
Wildfires in permafrost regions, intensified by climate change and shifting fire regimes, are increasingly disrupting permafrost systems. At the same time, the presence of permafrost amplifies the extent and complexity of wildfire impacts across the Permafrost Critical Zone (PCZ). In boreal forests and landscapes with sporadic or isolated permafrost patches, wildfires rapidly increase ground temperatures and accelerate permafrost thaw, primarily due to vegetation loss and the combustion of insulating organic layers. These fire-induced changes can initiate irreversible processes. …Understanding the complex interactions and cascading effects between wildfires and permafrost thaw remains a major challenge. Unlike wildfires in non-permafrost regions, which are mainly driven by fuel loads and organic soil depth, fire behavior in the PCZ is additionally shaped by active layer thickness, near-surface permafrost conditions, and snow cover. These elements interact with cold-adapted vegetation and organic soils, influencing fire ignition, intensity, spread, and post-fire recovery.
After a series of record-breaking US heatwaves, the 2026 bee swarm season in North America has started 17 days earlier than last year, pushing beekeepers to adapt to a rapidly shifting season while raising new questions about how honeybees are responding to the climate crisis. According to a 
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and Verra are pleased to announce a collaboration that will bring greater transparency and credibility to the voluntary carbon market. Under this new arrangement, Verified Carbon Units (VCUs) issued through Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard (VCS) Program can now carry an FSC label when they are generated from forests that hold valid FSC Forest Management (FM) certification. This means that buyers and stakeholders can readily identify carbon credits that come from responsibly managed, FSC-certified forestlands. This means projects that are dual registered under both the VCS Program and FSC FM certification will be eligible to apply the FSC label to their VCUs in the Verra Registry. To qualify, projects must demonstrate full spatial and temporal overlap between the VCS project area and the FSC-certified forest, and must hold a valid FSC FM certificate for the entire verification period.
According to a new report from Allied Market Research, the global biomass market size was valued at $59.0 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $121.0 billion by 2033, growing at a CAGR of 7.5% from 2024 to 2033. The rapid shift toward renewable energy sources, growing environmental concerns, and supportive government policies are significantly contributing to the expansion of the biomass market across the globe. The increasing focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving energy security is encouraging governments and industries to invest heavily in biomass energy technologies. Unlike fossil fuels, biomass is considered carbon-neutral because the carbon dioxide released during energy generation is offset by the carbon absorbed during the growth of biomass feedstocks. This advantage is making the biomass market increasingly attractive for sustainable energy development. The growing demand for renewable energy is one of the major factors fueling biomass market growth. … Biomass energy provides a reliable and stable source of renewable power…
Across the UNECE region, understanding how wood energy use relates to forest resources and energy supply remains a central question for policy. These relationships are reflected in material flows from forests and forest-based industries into energy supply. Drawing on data from the Joint Wood Energy Enquiry (JWEE), this report shows that increasing wood energy consumption has coincided with declining reliance on roundwood and a growing contribution from industrial by-products, processed wood-based fuels and post-consumer recovered wood. Over the same period, the share of forest net annual increment directly used for energy remained broadly stable, even as wood energy increased its contribution to total primary energy supply. Together, these developments point to changes in the composition of feedstocks, uses and consuming sectors rather than a simple intensification of harvest pressure, while cross-country differences reflect variation in forest endowments, industrial structures and trade patterns.
Finland’s economy has long been rooted in its forests—but in 2026, the sector sits at the intersection of energy transition, environmental regulation, and global market uncertainty. A glance at Finland’s real-time energy production reveals a system increasingly diversified across nuclear, hydro, and renewables. Yet beneath this transition lies a quieter but equally critical story: the evolving role of forestry in powering both industry and energy systems. Finland’s energy picture depends heavily on whether we look at electricity output or total primary energy consumption. …The broader energy balance tells a different story. When heat, fuels, and industrial energy are included, bioenergy remains Finland’s largest energy source, at roughly 135 TWh, ahead of nuclear energy at about 105 TWh. Oil remains significant at around 70 TWh, while hydro and wind contribute roughly 25 TWh and 20 TWh, respectively. This matters for forestry because forest-based energy remains central to Finland’s energy system, even as its role is slowly declining.
EUROPE — The war in the Middle East has – among many other unintended but avoidable consequences – put renewed pressure on the European Union to water down its carbon pricing policy. The focus right now is on the existing Emissions Trading System (ETS), but it’s not too soon to be concerned about the fate of its upcoming sequel, known as ETS2. ETS2 is the most consequential climate policy most Europeans (much less the rest of the world) have never heard of. Whereas the existing ETS puts a price on the carbon pollution caused by major industries such as power generation, steel, shipping, aviation and cement, ETS2 does the same for fossil fuels used for land transport and to heat buildings. As such it will impact as much as 40% of the EU’s total emissions – and the living costs of 450 million Europeans. The clock is ticking. ETS2 is scheduled to come into effect in 2028.
In the fight against the climate crisis, countries are pinning great hope in reforestation projects. In a new study, ETH Zurich researchers show that the location in which reforestation is taking place is usually more important than the number of trees planted. If forests are strategically positioned, the same cooling effect could be achieved using half the area of land. Climate researchers at ETH Zurich show where planting trees makes the most sense with a view to achieving the greatest possible cooling effect on the climate. Reforestation in tropical regions has the greatest cooling effect. Tree planting in the northern hemisphere, on the other hand, reduces the reflection of sunlight and has no effect or even contributes to global warming. The cooling effect on the climate will be a maximum of 0.25°C by 2100. This contribution is important, but it cannot replace the urgently required reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. 
A new study with EFI contribution,