We are heading toward a greener future that foresees more and more use of biomass as a renewable energy and one just has to look at the volume of ENplus certificates to see that high quality wood pellets are part of this future. WPAC is nothing if not preparing for the future. In its latest video release, The Power of Pellets: The Benefits of ENplus Certification, its members drive home the message: If you’re a Canadian pellet producer, and you want to know that you’re making a world class pellet, get certified!
The importance of Canada’s historic forest products trading partnership with Japan was magnified this fall when the Wood Pellet Association of Canada (WPAC) welcomed Japanese visitors to B.C. and then joined government, industry and First Nations partners on B.C.’s first post-Covid trade mission to Japan. “WPAC is very impressed with how Japan has grown the domestic biomass power sector and is contributing to climate change mitigation,” says Gordon Murray, WPAC executive director. “Our members are honoured to supply Japan with high quality, sustainable Canadian wood pellets to support their climate targets.” Renewable energy is considered indispensable to Japan’s pledged decarbonization, and as part of its goal to become carbon-neutral by 2050 the country is accelerating its use of biomass.
FPInnovations hosted four webinars about carbon capture, utilization, and storage within the context of the pulp and paper industry in Canada. This series of webinars…were a result of a collaboration with BC Pulp and Paper BioAlliance and The University of British Columbia, CanmetENERGY and Natural Resources Canada, and the University of Regina. They covered the basics of carbon capture and the most common separation technologies, looked into specific opportunities of sequestration and utilization in the context of our industry, CO2 purification and storage (two steps in the value chain that can weigh heavily on the economics of a carbon capture and utilization project), and finally discussed oxyfuel combustion, oxy-firing the lime kilns, and briefly introduced the concept of renewable natural gas and green hydrogen production at pulp mills. …The presentations and abstracts are available through FPInnovations’ Research Library.
NORTH VANCOUVER, BC
Canada is set to have a new national climate adaptation strategy, outlining the government’s intention to eliminate deaths from heat and forest fires, protect homes and businesses at the highest risk of flooding and help get people forced to flee extreme weather back home faster. …The government describes the document as a blueprint to identify the hazards Canadians face, figure out ways to lower the risk, and setting targets to actually do that. The targets will include better informing Canadians of those risks, ending all heat-related deaths, and upgrading the national disaster financial assistance program to include not just recovering from a major event, but rebuilding to withstand the next one. The government will also publish a list of things it intends to do to help adapt, including new investments in the federal Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund, and cash to fight wild fires and produce more complete flood maps for the entire country.
Forest Products Association of Canada welcomes the launch of a 
In 2016, the Alberta government set itself an ambitious target to help wean the province off its reliance on fossil fuels for electricity. The Renewable Electricity Act called for 30 per cent of all electricity produced in the province to come from renewables by 2030. …Six years later, the province is on track to meet — or exceed — the goal and is close to surpassing an interim target calling for 15 per cent of electricity produced in Alberta. …In 2017, coal was still providing 59 per cent of all electrical energy consumed. …Now, coal is set to be phased out entirely by 2023 — with many plants converting to natural gas — and renewables are surging. …The 30-by-30 target was brought in by the previous NDP government, including an increased carbon price… and a renewable electricity program. In Alberta, renewables largely refer to wind and solar, but can include hydro, geothermal and biomass.
(Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Territories/Vancouver, B.C.) – Today, the First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC), First Nations Climate Initiative (FNCI) and the Business Council of British Columbia (BCBC) announce a growing Coalition that supports action to urgently address climate change and achieve a just and prosperous economy for British Columbia. The Coalition is a committed and growing group of Indigenous and business leaders, Nations, companies, organizations, and communities that possess the expertise and capacity to invest and build necessary infrastructure and export B.C.’s bounty of low carbon natural resources, food, and energy products. These are products the world needs and wants to buy from our province. “On the heels of COP 27, …the Coalition is calling for increased urgency in making substantive progress on the transition to a lower carbon economy,” said Chief Sharleen Gale, Chair of the First Nations Major Projects Coalition. 
British Columbia has led the way in the uptake of zero-emission vehicles in North America, increased the number of public charging stations in the province by 50% in one year, and eliminated the largest fossil fuel subsidy in the province – just three key areas where progress has been made on climate action, demonstrated in the 2022 Climate Change Accountability Report. …The report provides progress updates on a wide range of CleanBC programs to reduce emissions, build a cleaner economy and prepare for the impacts of climate change over the 2021-22 fiscal period. It confirms that, despite some technical changes from the federal government’s national emissions inventory and modelling updates, B.C. is largely projected to meet its 2030 target. The accountability report provides new data on progress made across sectors like transportation, industry, buildings and communities, and the public service.
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OTTAWA — Federal ministers were spoiling for a fight over carbon pricing Tuesday as the Liberals moved to expand the federal system — and the accompanying rebates — to three Atlantic provinces. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said updated pricing plans submitted by Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island don’t meet the higher standards for carbon pricing that will take effect next year. So on July 1, consumers and smaller businesses in those provinces will join those in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario who already pay the federal carbon price and receive the associated rebates….British Columbia has its own approved carbon price and pays its own rebates. Quebec has a cap-and-trade system without direct rebates. New Brunswick is set to unveil the details of its pricing plan soon, and it already got Ottawa’s approval.
Humans have a long history of turning biomass – renewable organic material from plants and animals – into energy, mainly by burning wood. …But as pressure mounts on global energy providers to slash dependence on fossil fuels and increase energy output from renewable sources, companies that can convert organic matter into energy look set to have a bright future. Asia and Europe are the largest and fastest-growing regions for biomass use and biogas output, and accounted for 44% and 33%, respectively, of electricity generation from bioenergy sources in 2021. …In contrast, electricity output from bioenergy has contracted in North America, shrinking by 13% since 2015. However, thanks in part to the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, investments in U.S. biomass energy output look set to climb… [with] far-reaching consequences for the trade in wood pellets, which are the primary form of international biomass exports.
The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed increasing the amount of ethanol and other biofuels that must be blended into the nation’s fuel supplies over the next three years, a move welcomed by renewable fuel and farm groups but condemned by environmentalists and oil industry groups. “This proposal supports low-carbon renewable fuels and seeks public input on ways to strengthen the program,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said. “With this proposal, EPA seeks to provide consumers with more options while diversifying our nation’s energy mix.” The proposal also includes new incentives to encourage the use of biogas from farms and landfills, and renewable biomass such as wood, to generate electricity to charge electric vehicles. …Geoff Cooper, of the Renewable Fuels Association, said that the EPA’s plan creates a “clear pathway for sustainable growth for our industry.”
Many companies promising “net-zero” emissions to protect the climate are backing that claim by investing in vast swaths of forests to recapture carbon. It turns out this strategy isn’t working very well. On paper, 
BETHESDA, Md. & THE PLAINS, Va.–Enviva, the world’s leading producer of sustainably sourced woody biomass, and GreenTrees, the market leader in reforestation and carbon removal in the U.S., today announced a nine-year partnership agreement that will contribute towards Enviva’s net-zero goals for its Scope 1 carbon footprint, equating to approximately 10,000 metric tons of carbon removal credits annually, or 90,000 metric tons throughout the duration of the contract. …The project will take place in the rural U.S. Southeast, on land formerly used for agriculture but has been deemed no longer suitable for farming and crop growth due to soil erosion and water damage. The afforestation of this land will not compete with lands used for agricultural and food sources, but will serve as permanent carbon removal. This partnership will provide a new source of income for rural landowners in the GreenTrees program who are no longer able to use the land for agriculture.
The UK Government is currently reviewing its investments in biomass energy and is due to publish a new Biomass Strategy. Selaine Saxby, Conservative MP for North Devon, said, “If we are going to achieve our climate goals and lower energy bills, we need to rethink our use of biomass power. It is no longer cheaper than new wind or solar power, and experts increasingly doubt its green credentials. Instead, we need to make better use of waste wood and focus on building genuine and cheap renewables.” …So what are the challenges of biomass? The first is the difficulty of ensuring that all the CO2 is really recaptured. The carbon released from the forest soil when exposed can be as great as that stored in the trees. Mature trees absorb more carbon than young trees… Indeed trees planted now will absorb little carbon before 2050, and this delay is critical in the race to cut emissions…
Norwich, England — New research by the University of East Anglia highlights the risks of countries relying on nature-based solutions to achieve net zero. National climate strategies set out how countries plan to reduce emissions, for example by phasing out fossil fuel use, to get to net zero in 2050. The study found that once the bulk of emissions have been reduced, countries plan to “cancel out” the leftover difficult-to-decarbonize emissions, such as those from agriculture, by using forests and soils to remove carbon from the atmosphere. However, this may prove risky because forests and soils are also threatened by a range of impacts, such as fire, disease, changes in farming practices, and deforestation. These threats mean that forests and soils could lose their stored carbon back to the atmosphere. There is also a risk of being overly optimistic about the amount of carbon that forests and soils can remove…
More than 650 scientists are urging world leaders to stop burning trees to make energy because it destroys valuable habitats for wildlife. In the buildup to Cop15, the UN biodiversity summit, they say countries urgently need to stop using forest bioenergy to create heat and electricity as it undermines international climate and nature targets. Instead, renewable energy sources such as wind and solar should be used, they say. Bioenergy has “wrongly been deemed ‘carbon neutral’” and many countries are increasingly relying on forest biomass to meet net zero goals, according to the letter, addressed to world leaders…. “The best thing for the climate and biodiversity is to leave forests standing – and biomass energy does the opposite,” it says. The letter says that if global leaders agree to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030 at the Cop15 meeting in Montreal, they must also commit to ending reliance on biomass energy.
TALLINN – Commenting on a conference on the New European Bauhaus initiative, Henrik Valja, head of the Estonian Forest and Wood Industries Association, said that wood is increasingly seen …as a carbon sink, not only in forests but also in products and construction. “In Estonia, we tend to forget in the forestry debate that socio-economic needs for jobs, resources and products will not disappear during the green transition. Forestry and adding value to wood by transforming it into long-term products that help replace products with a larger environmental footprint is an opportunity and an advantage for Estonia,” Valja said on Friday. “In commercial forest, we need to focus on growing high-quality timber suitable for the production of long-lasting, added-value products. In order to invest in even more value added, businesses need certainty about the availability of raw materials as well as policy priorities,” he added.
SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt — For the first time ever at a climate summit, the final text of this month’s COP27 included a “forests” section and a reference to “nature-based solutions,” — recognizing the important role nature can play in curbing human-caused climate change. But it’s too early to declare a victory for forests. …By referencing REDD+, the text could breathe new life into this UN framework, which has so far failed to be a game-changer in the fight against deforestation as many hoped it would be. …COP27 also took a step toward implementing Article 6.4 of the Paris agreement, a mechanism that some see as a valid market-based climate solution, though others judge it as just another “bogus” carbon trading scheme. …Many activists are pinning their hopes instead on Article 6.8, which aims to finance the protection of ecosystems through “non-market approaches” like grants, rather than with carbon credits.
I’ve written previously about the displacements in developing nations being caused by Europe’s efforts to hoard global supplies of liquefied natural gas for domestic consumption, causing international prices to rise to unprecedented levels unaffordable for some nations, like Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to bear. …Now, media attention is increasingly being focused on the decision by the EU to classify the burning of wood as “green” for the purposes of its climate regulatory structure. This classification and commensurate government subsidization has resulted in a revival of this 18th-century technology, despite that fact that the burning of wood accounts for more than 50% of Europe’s particulate emissions. …Today, in their zeal to get to their somewhat arbitrary “net-zero by 2050” climate goals, European leaders are turning back to this medieval energy technology to burnish their ESG scores.
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, or BECCS, sounds like the perfect net-zero solution: grow some form of plant material, burn that material for energy, capture the CO2 emitted during combustion and store it underground. You can then grow more plant feedstock in the same area, which sucks up carbon from the atmosphere, meaning at the end of it all, you have created energy at a net loss of carbon. However, despite its utopian pretensions, BECCS has yet again found itself at the centre of a scandal involving unsustainable practices in the sourcing of biomass feedstock. In a BBC Panorama investigation alleged that UK-based power producer Drax bought logging licences to cut down two areas of environmentally important forest in British Columbia. In the wake of a series of controversies… is it finally time to call it quits on the tantalising dream?