Category Archives: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Domtar asks Canadians to sign petition supporting biomass tax credit

By Domtar
LinkedIn
July 14, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

Take action: We’ve submitted an e-petition calling on the federal government to pass a biomass investment tax credit in the next budget. We’re asking Canadian Citizens to consider signing the e-petition so Parliament will pass a biomass tax credit in the fall budget. This tax credit will incentivize the purchase of low-carbon biomass energy equipment. Why should you sign? Forest biomass — the leftover material from logging and sawmill operations — can be transformed into renewable, low-carbon energy. By using this forest waste productively, we help reduce wildfire risks, promote sustainable forest management, and create good jobs in rural and remote communities across Canada. This petition, sponsored by Gord Johns MP for Courtenay—Alberni in British Columbia, will help unlock an estimated $6 billion in investment in Canada’s forest sector and help create and sustain up to 600,000 jobs nationwide. You can find the online petition here.

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Safe Wood Pellet Storage – Denmark workshop and tour

The Wood Pellet Association of Canada
July 15, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, International

The Wood Pellet Association of Canada, in collaboration with FutureMetrics and Ørsted, is hosting a half-day tour and a one-day workshop, Safe Wood Pellet Storage: Preventing, Detecting, and Managing Self-Heating Incidents, in Copenhagen, Denmark, September 2-3, 2025. On day one, Ørsted will take attendees on a tour of one of their Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) projects. This will be followed by a full day workshop and Ørsted-hosted Dinner. This workshop will provide insights into major incidents, technical causes, risk mitigation strategies, and emergency response procedures, helping professionals enhance safety standards across storage facilities. Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with leading specialists and drive industry-wide improvements forward.

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No, David Suzuki hasn’t given up on the climate fight — but his battle plan is changing

By Bridget Stringer-Holden
CBC News
July 11, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

David Suzuki

Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki made headlines last week when he said in an interview with iPolitics that humanity has lost its fight against climate change. “We’re in deep trouble,” Suzuki told the outlet. “I’ve never said this before to the media, but it’s too late.” Though he made it clear that he hasn’t entirely given up, Suzuki says that rather than getting caught up in trying to force change through legal, political and economic systems, we now need to focus on community action. …But now, Suzuki says he’s changing his advice to environmental advocates. He says he hasn’t given up on finding solutions, just on waiting for governments and institutions to take meaningful action. …He recalls an MP he urged him to reach out across party lines to take action because climate change couldn’t remain political. The MP responded by saying he was worried about the next election.

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Exciting Line-up: Biomass for a Low-Carbon Future

Wood Pellet Association of Canada
July 9, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

The Wood Pellet Association of Canada will host the largest gathering of the Canadian wood pellet industry. Biomass and wood pellets play a key role in ensuring Canada has renewable and responsible energy. Join us in Halifax, Nova Scotia, September 23-24, 2025.

Sessions include:

  • Bioheat Opportunities for Canada
    Explore the potential of bioheat in the Canadian context. Case studies highlight how locally sourced biomass can replace fuels and create local jobs.
  • One on One: Powering the Net-Negative Transition
    Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage will be presented by Ørsted. Unpack the key ingredients for success, from feedstock and infrastructure to policy and public trust.
  • Inside the Smoulder—How to Detect, Prevent, and Survive Self-Heating in Biomass Storage
    Panel experts will dive into the mechanics of self-heating and offer guidance for operators, engineers, and executives alike. Learn about the cultural shifts required to strengthen safety outcomes to save your operation from a costly incident.

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‘It’s too late’: David Suzuki says the fight against climate change is lost

By David Legree
iPolitics.ca
July 8, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, International

David Suzuki

“Public concern in the late 1980s was right at the top and we had the first international conference on the atmosphere in 1988, where there were over 40 governments, environmentalists, scientists, private sector people. At the end, they said global warming represented a threat to humanity, second only to global nuclear war. If the world had followed the conclusions from that conference, we would not have the problem we face today and we would have saved trillions of dollars and millions of lives. Now, it is too late. I’ve never said this before to the media, but it’s too late. I say that because I go by science and Johan Rockström, the Swedish scientist who heads the Potsdam Institute, has defined nine planetary boundaries. …As long as humans, like any other animal, live within those nine constraints, we can do it forever, and that includes the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.”

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Wildfire Smoke Brings a Forgotten Danger to the Arctic: Black Carbon

By Danielle Bochove
Bloomberg in the Financial Post
July 7, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

In 2023, the Canada wildfires that incinerated more than 17 million hectares of boreal forest were so hot they … smoldered underground all winter. That heat created vast columns of rising air, carrying dust, volatile organic compounds, and huge quantities of a simple particle with the potential to exacerbate climate change: black carbon. Commonly known as soot, black carbon is a type of pollution formed by the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels or biomass such as trees. It’s a risk to human health, having been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. It’s also a potent short-term warming agent. Black carbon absorbs copious heat from the sun and, when it coats a layer of ice or snow, reduces its ability to reflect solar energy back into space. …The research on black carbon needs to be updated as more becomes known about the aerosol, and that makes tracking wildfire smoke even more important. 

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Wildfires can start in many ways — but climate change supercharges them

By Ryan Ness, Canadian Climate Institute
Vancouver Sun
July 2, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

There’s an important distinction between how a wildfire starts and what allows it to spiral into an uncontrollable inferno. …Fires can be ignited by lightning, campfires, equipment sparks, power lines, or — rarely — arson. But the ignition source is only one part of the equation. What determines the spread and intensity of a wildfire is the condition of the landscape it burns through. Extended droughts, intense heat, high winds, and dry vegetation all make wildfires more likely to spread rapidly and become more destructive. Scientific research has made the connection between climate change and wildfire risk unmistakably clear. …Today, prolonged droughts, record heat, and volatile weather amplified by climate change mean even accidental fires are more likely to escalate into uncontrollable infernos. …climate change is setting the stage for even greater risks in the years ahead … [yet] the G7 Kananaskis charter on wildfires did not mention climate…

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Canada’s wildfire emissions exceeded all other sources in 2023: Report

By Tiffany Crawford
Vancouver Sun
July 3, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

A new report highlights how Canada’s worst wildfire season on record in 2023 caused more greenhouse-gas emissions than all other sources combined. The report follows a warning that the 2025 wildfire season will likely be the second worst on record. The 2023 wildfires released nearly one gigatonne — one billion tonnes — of carbon dioxide from Canada’s forests, an amount that far exceeds the total emissions of 694 megatonnes from all other sources of emissions in Canada that same year, according to a report from the Canadian Climate Institute. The report looks at the latest data from Canada’s National Inventory Report on greenhouse-gas emissions, which contains an entry for the CO2 released by wildfires. However, wildfire CO2 emissions are not counted toward Canada’s official greenhouse-gas targets. …Most countries exclude forest fires as they strive to meet targets set out in the Paris Accord… Canada’s CO2 entry for wildfires also doesn’t include other gases released such as methane.

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On Carney’s agenda, climate is nowhere and everywhere

By Arno Kopecky
The National Observer
July 2, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

Mark Carney

Throughout Mark Carney’s whirlwind first months on the job, two words have remained conspicuously absent from the prime minister’s messaging: “climate change.” That’s been a major disappointment for many in the climate community. …“It’s a serious omission, and that’s being very polite,” wildfire expert Mike Flannigan said. …So what happened? The new prime minister doesn’t lecture on climate like the old one. Does that mean he’s forgotten about the climate crisis? …Dale Beugin, at the Canadian Climate Institute, said “I get the priority to go after nation-building projects. …The trick will be to make sure that they can deliver on those shorter-term economic imperatives, while not losing the climate ones.” …The PMO didn’t respond to a request for comment on this story, though the ministry of environment and climate change did provide a statement: “Climate action remains a core priority of this government and a defining pillar of Canada’s economic future.

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As climate costs mount, businesses talking more about spending to adapt: report

By Ian Bickis
Business in Vancouver
June 23, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

Work on climate change has largely focused on preventing it from getting worse, but as a new RBC report points out, businesses are also starting to think more about potential spending on adaptation and preparation as the costs of disasters pile up. The report says that extreme weather and natural disaster costs already totalled US$368 billion last year, 14 per cent above the long-term average since 2000, and that this year could match or exceed the total. The trend is expected to get worse, because as the report notes there’s expected to be a 2.7 degree rise in average temperatures by 2100 based on current global policies and actions, while an optimistic scenario pegs the rise at 1.9 degrees. The costs stemming from rising temperatures are leading to more attention in boardrooms, with the report noting mentions of climate change on the rise in both U.S. and Asia.

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Bioenergy research project tackles wildfire risk in Watson Lake

By Jake Howarth
Yukon News
July 9, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Yukon — Researchers with the Canadian Forest Service are exploring how forest fuel biomass from high-fire-risk areas around Watson Lake could be transformed into local energy, potentially reducing wildfire risk while providing sustainable power for remote Yukon communities. The multi-year project is part of a collaborative national research effort to assess the feasibility of linking wildfire mitigation with local bioenergy solutions. “We have to work with the community because we really want to use real-world data, real-world experience to determine if can we effectively apply this,” said Natural Resources Canada researcher Nicolas Mansuy. Researchers previously assessed biomass availability across Canada and found that nearly all 276 northern and remote communities facing wildfire risks could replace fossil fuels with local bioenergy. …Watson Lake emerged as a top candidate due to its dense forest fuels and strategic location, Mansuy said. 

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Perkins&Will Vancouver wins award for commitment to circularity

By Peter Caulfield
Construction Connect Canada
June 23, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Perkins&Will Vancouver has won in the Commitment to Circularity category at the 2025 Carbon Leadership Forum in British Columbia. The award is for “exceptional initiatives and projects that embrace and tangibly advance circularity or circular concepts within the B.C. building sector.” Embodied carbon refers to the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with a building product’s life cycle, from raw material extraction to disposal. This includes emissions from manufacturing, transportation and construction. Circular design and construction reduces embodied carbon by minimizing the environmental impact of building materials during their lifecycle. Circular design reuses materials and recycles and uses low-carbon and sustainably-sourced materials. Circularity Vancouver-style involves deconstructing single-family homes so their building materials can be reclaimed and used to construct new buildings, instead of being trucked off to the landfill.

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How Great Bear Carbon is Bringing Indigenous Governance and Stewardship to the Volunteer Carbon Market

By Andrew Seale
RBC Royal Bank
June 23, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

The Great Bear Rainforest on British Columbia’s North and Central Coast sequesters millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide across 6.4 million hectares of snow-capped mountains, ancient western red cedars, and Sitka spruce. It is considered one of the world’s largest carbon sinks—meaning it absorbs more carbon dioxide (CO2) than it releases. Under the Great Bear Carbon banner, a collection of coastal First Nations has entered the voluntary carbon offset market. The organization generates carbon offsets by preserving trees and ecosystems that naturally store CO2, with each carbon offset verifying the removal of one tonne of carbon from the atmosphere. Businesses, governments and individuals can purchase carbon offsets to compensate for their environmental impact. The Great Bear Carbon program helps raise revenue to support the local First Nations and their stewardship efforts.

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New Brunswick Power’s plan to burn wood pellets under fire

By John Chilibeck
The Telegraph-Journal
July 13, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

NB Power’s estimated $300-million plan to convert its biggest plant in northern New Brunswick from burning coal to wood pellets would be environmentally damaging and waste a lot of energy, warns a new report. The Conservation Council of New Brunswick, an environmental organization looked at the plan. …They came up with findings that are at odds with NB Power’s rosy view. Running the plant full time on wood pellets, the critics said, would need more offcuts, forcing NB Power to import fuel from Europe. Furthermore, they warn that sourcing as much wood as possible locally would hurt the forest ecology. And lastly, they argue that burning pellets to create electricity is hugely inefficient and would drive up greenhouse gas emissions. …Energy Minister René Legacy told Brunswick News his department would take a close look at the report. But he alluded to the more than 100 jobs NB Power has created.

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Funding announced for several biomass projects

By Gerald Tracey
The Eganville Leader
July 9, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

Five Eastern Ontario companies – three of them in Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke – will receive just over $9.1 in government funding under the Forest Biomass Program to create new products and expand markets for existing products produced from low quality forest products. The announcement was made Monday morning by MPP Kevin Holland, the Associate Minister of Forestry and Forest Products at one of two Killaloe Wood Products sites in Bonnechere Valley Township, south of Eganville, where landscaping mulch and other biomass products are processed… “These investments support good paying jobs, drive local growth and encourage innovation,” he said. “But today isn’t just about numbers on a page. Behind every dollar are businesses right here in Eganville and in Whitney that form the backbone of our local economy. The forestry sector is the cornerstone of the economic ecosystem that supports every corner of the riding.”

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Ontario Protecting Forest Sector Jobs and Workers

By Natural Resources
Government of Ontario
July 7, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada East

EGANVILLE, Ontario — The Government of Ontario is protecting workers and jobs in the forest sector by investing over $9.1 million in five research, innovation and modernization projects in Eastern Ontario. The investments from the Forest Biomass Program will help boost Ontario’s forest sector’s competitive advantage by creating new jobs, increasing productivity and opening up opportunities for revenue streams in new markets. …The government’s investment is supporting projects related to underused wood and mill by-products, known as forest biomass. …These projects will help create good-paying local jobs while supporting the delivery of high-quality, made-in-Ontario products to market at a lower cost. In addition, they will strengthen Eastern Ontario’s economy by creating added demand for the harvesting, hauling and trucking industries, and develop new opportunities for Indigenous communities to participate in the growing forestry industry.

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Chloris Geospatial Raises $8.5 Million Series A to Scale Satellite-Based Forest Carbon Monitoring

Cision Newswire
July 7, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

Chloris Geospatial, a climate-tech company pioneering satellite-based measurement of forest carbon and ecosystem change, announced today it has raised $8.5 million in Series A funding. Developed under the guidance of Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer Dr. Alessandro Baccini, the Chloris technology uses satellite data, proprietary sensor fusion and machine learning to measure vegetation, going far beyond traditional land cover mapping. Chloris is uniquely positioned to provide high-quality, affordable, and timely data on what has happened in every acre of forest around the world since the year 2000. Across both voluntary carbon markets and corporate supply chains, organizations are increasingly relying on satellite-based insights to assess, invest in, and monitor forest carbon projects and to report emissions and removals in alignment with protocols like the GHG Protocol.

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Forests’ vanishing snow is also bad news for carbon storage

By James Dinneen
New Scientist
July 7, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

Many forests are losing their winter snowpack as global temperatures rise, and that could substantially slow their growth – and reduce the amount of carbon they remove from the atmosphere. Current projections “are not incorporating that complexity of winter climate change, so they are likely overestimating what the future carbon storage will be”, says Emerson Conrad-Rooney at Boston University in Massachusetts. Warming temperatures are generally expected to boost growth in temperate forests, mainly by spurring decomposition and making more nutrients available during the warm growing season. However, models largely don’t account for changes during winter – especially the loss of snow. “The loss of deep, insulating snowpack cannot be understated,” says Elizabeth Burakowsi at the University of New Hampshire. Her research has shown deep snow days will disappear across most of the US by the end of the century, with consequences for water storage and ecosystem health.

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Trump administration shuts down U.S. website on climate change

By Ian James and Noah Haggerty
The Los Angeles Times
July 1, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

The Trump administration on Monday shut down a federal website that had presented congressionally mandated reports and research on climate change, drawing rebukes from scientists who said it will hinder the nation’s efforts to prepare for worsening droughts, floods and heat waves. The U.S. Global Change Research Program’s website, globalchange.gov, was taken down along with all five versions of the National Climate Assessment report and extensive information on how global warming is affecting the country. “They’re public documents. It’s scientific censorship at its worst,” said Peter Gleick, a California water and climate scientist. …In May, Trump signed an executive order saying that his administration is committed to “restoring a gold standard for science to ensure that federally funded research is transparent, rigorous.” …The president cited an example relating to climate science, saying federal agencies previously used a “worst-case scenario” of warming “based on highly unlikely assumptions.”

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How carbon capture works and the debate about whether it’s a future climate solution

By Tammy Webber
The Associated Press in ABC News
June 26, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

Power plants and industrial facilities that emit carbon dioxide are hopeful that Congress will keep tax credits for capturing the gas and storing it deep underground. The process, called carbon capture and sequestration, is seen by many as an important way to reduce pollution during a transition to renewable energy. But it faces criticism from some conservatives, who say it is expensive and unnecessary, and from environmentalists, who say it has consistently failed to capture as much pollution. …The most commonly used technology allows facilities to capture and store around 60% of their CO2 emissions during the production process. Anything above that rate is much more difficult and expensive, according to the IEA. …Even so, carbon capture is an important tool to reduce CO2 emissions, particularly in heavy industries, said Sangeet Nepal at the Carbon Capture Coalition. “It’s not a substitution for renewables … it’s just a complementary technology”.

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Burying forest waste could slow heating of planet, study finds

By Saul Elbein
The Hill
June 25, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

The world’s sawmills and plantation forests offer a powerful weapon against climate change, a new study has found. A paper published in Nature Geosciences found that burying the vast quantities of wood waste produced in the course of logging and processing trees could markedly slow Earth’s heating. Heat waves like the one currently afflicting the East Coast in the U.S. have been made far more likely by centuries of unchecked burning of fossil fuels — which release heat-trapping chemicals like carbon dioxide. …But in addition to the need to halt that burning, researchers found that burying waste from trees … offers an unparalleled way to counteract its impacts. …the study burying waste could reduce the Earth’s heating by 0.42 degrees Celsius, or about one-sixth of the estimated 3 degrees Celsius that scientists believe the Earth is on track to heat up by the end of the century.

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Proposed California project pivots from wood pellets to wood chips

By Erin Krueger
Biomass Magazine
June 26, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

The board of Golden State Natural Resources on June 25 voted to revise its plans for the proposed development of two wood pellet plants in California and will instead move forward with the development of two smaller-scale wood chip projects. GSNR is a nonprofit public benefit corporation … their initial plans focused on the conversion of woody biomass gathered as part of forest treatment and restoration activities into wood pellets… The board, however, voted to move forward with a plan to revise the scope of the project, which could include reducing the size and throughput of both facilities while transitioning from producing wood pellets for export to the production of wood chips for domestic use. GSNR noted wood chips could have applications in domestic alternative energy production, such as sustainable aviation fuel, marine biofuels, or in bioenergy with carbon capture and storage applications. Alternatively, wood chips can be used to produce wood products, such as oriented strand board. 

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California nonprofit revises plan for controversial wood pellet project

By Edvard Pettersson
Courthouse News Service
June 25, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

A California nonprofit organization has decided to revise its controversial plan to build two wood pellet processing plants that would turn excess biomass in the state’s forests into pellets to be shipped overseas for use in renewable energy generation. Golden State Natural Resources said Wednesday it will develop a reduced-scale project focused on domestic, rather than international, use of sourced wood, producing wood chips instead of pellets. The project will target emerging demand in California and nearby regions for sustainable energy and alternative wood products. The organization’s proposed Forest Resiliency Project has drawn the ire of environmentalists who say California needs to rethink “falling for the biomass delusion.” Golden State Natural Resources was formed by rural counties to reduce massive wildfires fueled by overgrown, undermanaged forests. The project aims to use low-value forest material like ladder fuels and dead trees to lower wildfire risk and improve forest health. 

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A forest the size of North America would be needed to offset Big Oil’s reserves, study finds

By Hayley Smith
Los Angeles Times
June 19, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

The world would need to plant a forest the size of North America in order to offset planet-warming emissions from the 200 largest oil and gas companies, new research has found. A study published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment analyzed the economic and ecological benefits of planting trees as a means of balancing potential carbon dioxide emissions from the projected burning of oil reserves held by the fossil fuel industry. …The burning of fossil fuels represents about 90% of planet-warming emissions. …But, as the paper notes, “fossil-fuel companies currently face little incentive to reduce the extraction and use of fossil fuels, and regulatory measures to limit these activities have been slow to materialise.” …Indeed, the researchers acknowledged that the study has limitations as it relies on broad assumptions, including that all existing fossil fuel reserves will be sold and burned.

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Researchers: paper mills generate more greenhouse gases than reported

By Shari Phiel
The Camas-Washougal Post-Record
June 19, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: US West

A new report from Environmental Integrity Project — a national watchdog group founded by Eric Schaffer, former director of the Environmental Protection Agency — claims some paper mills could be generating up to three times more greenhouse gas emissions than reported. Researchers spent six months reviewing state and federal data for 185 pulp and paper mills across the country, combing through thousands of public records, and visited three mills: one in South Carolina, one in Virginia and the Port Townsend Paper Co. mill north of Seattle. “Even in the digital age, we need paper products. But there is no reason a clean sheet of paper needs to be made with dirty fuels and antiquated methods,” Environmental Integrity Project executive director Jen Duggan said in a news release. Of the 185 mills reviewed, 73 percent have outdated boilers still in operation, many dating back to World War II, according to the report

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As it searches for new markets, can South Carolina’s forestry industry tap into energy?

By Lucy Valeski
The State
July 2, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

After Georgetown’s International Paper mill shut down at the end of last year, the pressure is on for South Carolina’s forestry industry to find new local markets. The solution may be as simple as burning wood, a type of renewable energy. …South Carolina produces wood pellets but much of the product is shipped abroad. …Some lawmakers hope wood biomass specifically could address two problems the state faces: the forestry industry’s need for new local markets and consumers’ demand for more energy. State lawmakers attempted to address the latter in the South Carolina Energy Security Act. The new law is aimed at generating more energy in the state. …Forestry industry leaders delivered a report at the beginning of 2025 highlighting the economic impact of the closures. The short report, led by the SC Forest Recovery Task Force, identifies potential markets where the forestry industry could expand. Biomass tops the list.

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Young forests could help to capture carbon in climate change fight

By the University of Birmingham
Phys.Org
July 2, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Young forests regrowing from land where mature woodlands have been cut down have a key role to play in removing billions of tons of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and combating climate change, a new study reveals. …Forest regeneration offers a cost-effective method for carbon removal, but rates vary by location and forest age. Researchers have discovered that young secondary forests, particularly those aged between 20 and 40 years, exhibit the highest rates of carbon removal—locking away up to eight times more carbon per hectare than newly regenerating forests. …Their study reveals that if 800 million hectares of restorable forest begin regenerating in 2025, up to 20.3 billion metric tons of carbon could be removed by 2050, but delays sharply reduce this potential.

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European Union includes international CO2 credits in climate goal for first time

By Kate Abnett
Reuters
July 2, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed an EU climate target for 2040 that for the first time will allow countries to use carbon credits from developing nations to meet a limited share of their emissions goal. The European Union executive proposed a legally-binding target to cut net greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2040, from 1990 levels – aiming to keep the EU on course for its core climate aim to reach net zero emissions by 2050. But following pushback from governments including France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic, the Commission also proposed flexibilities that would soften the 90% emissions target for European industries. Reflecting Germany’s public stance, up to 3 percentage points of the 2040 target can be covered by carbon credits bought from other countries through a U.N.-backed market, reducing the effort required by domestic industries. 

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Unprecedented fires fueled by climate change threaten iconic World Heritage forests

UNESCO World Heritage Conservation
June 24, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

In an update to the joint UNESCO-WRI-IUCN report “World Heritage forests: carbon sinks under pressure”, new data reveals that fires have accounted for approximately 75% of tree cover loss in World Heritage sites. Steadily increasing tree cover loss due to fires, fueled by climate change, has led to record high emissions, and threatens the robust carbon sinks of forests in World Heritage sites. Since 2001, approximately 4.5 million hectares of forest—more than the area of Switzerland—have been lost across World Heritage sites, with fires responsible for around 75% of that loss. The vast majority — approximately 80% — of all fire-related tree cover loss occurred in high-latitude forests, primarily across North America and Siberia. Forests in Australia account for an additional 15% of the loss, while all other regions contributed approximately 5%.

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Why forests are the next frontier in climate investment

Environmental Finance
June 25, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Andrew Boutwell

Investors increasingly understand the role sustainable forestry can play in the path to a net zero economy, argues Andrew Boutwell, Senior Managing Director and Head of Investment Management at Forest Investment Associates. Investors increasingly see forests as platforms for a broader set of value streams, for example ranging from carbon credits and conservation finance to renewable energy siting, mitigation banking, and participation in the growing bio-economy. As the pricing of natural capital becomes more sophisticated and land markets respond to climate adaptation needs, we believe diversified forest portfolios will be well-positioned to capture these uplift opportunities. This shift is driving renewed focus on land use optimisation through data, analytics, and active management. From converting marginal plantations to solar use, to improving productivity on high-quality soils, to conserving ecologically sensitive areas, diversified forest portfolios enable strategic flexibility. For investors, this means cash flow from timber alongside exposure to a growing set of land-based value drivers aligned with climate-smart use.

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Woodchips from endangered possum habitat sold to Domino’s for woodfired pizza

By Angela Heathcote
ABC News Australia
June 25, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

When Domino’s advertised its “smokehouse” pizzas in 2023, it trumpeted that the meat was smoked over timber logged from “Aussie Mountain ash”. It also advertised that the timber was certified as sustainable. But what the advertising didn’t promote was that mountain ash forests are critically endangered, with logging listed as one of the key processes threatening them. And now the ABC can reveal the certification that assured consumers that logging was sustainable was breached in seven different ways, according to the organisation that accredits certifiers. Those breaches included potentially stealing the trees from the neighbouring state forest, ignoring protections for waterways and logging potential endangered species habitat. “I think Australians should be absolutely appalled that the world’s tallest flowering tree is chipped up to make woodchips to smoke pork bellies to put on pizzas. It’s ridiculous. What are we talking about? Endangered possum pizzas?” Professor Lindenmayer said.

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Policymakers often ignore forest regeneration in fight against climate change, research finds

By Stefanie Eschenbacher
Reuters
June 24, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Naturally-regenerating forests are often ignored by policymakers working to curb climate change even though they hold an untapped potential to rapidly absorb planet-warming carbon from the atmosphere, scientists found in a research paper published Tuesday. These so-called secondary forests, which have regenerated themselves after being razed, often for agriculture, can help bring the world closer to the net-zero emissions target needed to slow global warming, the research published in the journal shows. That is because these young forests, which are made of trees between two and four decades old, can remove carbon from the atmosphere up to eight times faster per hectare than forests that were just planted, they found. It comes as companies worldwide are raising millions of dollars to regrow forests from scratch to generate carbon credits they can sell to polluting industries seeking to offset their greenhouse gas emissions.

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Policymakers often ignore forest regeneration in fight against climate change, research finds

By Stefanie Eschenbacher
Reuters
June 24, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Naturally-regenerating forests are often ignored by policymakers working to curb climate change even though they hold an untapped potential to rapidly absorb planet-warming carbon from the atmosphere, scientists found in a research paper published Tuesday. These so-called secondary forests, which have regenerated themselves after being razed, often for agriculture, can help bring the world closer to the net-zero emissions target needed to slow global warming, the research published in the journal Nature Climate Change shows. That is because these young forests, which are made of trees between two and four decades old, can remove carbon from the atmosphere up to eight times faster per hectare than forests that were just planted, they found. … “It’s a constant cycle of deforestation,” said Nathaniel Robinson, one of the authors and a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry.

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Rise in legal challenges over carbon credit schemes

By Isabella Kaminski
The Guardian UK
June 25, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Judges across the world are proving sceptical of companies’ attempts to offset their greenhouse gas emissions by buying carbon credits, a report has found. In an analysis of nearly 3,000 climate-related lawsuits filed around the world since 2015, the latest annual review of climate litigation by the London School of Economics found action against corporations in particular was “evolving”, with growing scrutiny of how companies plan to meet their stated climate commitments. Dozens of legal challenges over the past decade have raised arguments related to carbon credits, and many have been successful. Last month, Energy Australia acknowledged that carbon offsets did not prevent or undo damage caused by greenhouse gas emissions. …Cases such as these “focus on the integrity of carbon credits and the claims that can be made regarding the carbon emissions of a product or service when credits are purchased to ‘offset’ emissions from that product or service”, the LSE report found.

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Protecting Naturally Regrowing Forests Is a Crucial — and Overlooked — Climate Solution

By David Gibbs, Susan Cook-Patton and Nathaniel Robinson
World Resources Institute
June 24, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Protecting and restoring forests are essential for curbing climate change. But while efforts often focus on conserving mature forests and planting new trees (both of which are badly needed), a critical piece of the puzzle is often overlooked: managing naturally regrowing forests to increase the carbon they remove. Until now, scientists did not have a detailed picture of the carbon removal value of naturally regrowing forests. But new research by The Nature Conservancy, WRI and partners shows that naturally regenerating “secondary forests” (which have regrown after being cleared by harvests, severe fires, agriculture or other disturbances) could be especially powerful for fighting climate change. It is the first to show where, and at what ages, they can have the biggest impact. We found that secondary forests between 20 and 40 years old can remove carbon from the atmosphere up to 8 times faster per hectare than new natural growth —if they’re allowed to reach those older ages.

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Healthy production systems are key to sustainable biomass supply

European Commission Joint Research Centre
June 23, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

While biomass production and extraction in the European Union continue to grow, its long-term viability is at risk due to declining ecosystem conditions. A new report calls for more coherent governance and urgent actions to ensure that biomass production and use are compatible with ecological limits and policy goals… The report shows that while forest conditions have improved in 33 forest ecosystems, their situation declined significantly in northern Scandinavia, the Carpathians, and the Iberian Peninsula. Based on forest growth modelling simulations, which assume that current trends of 2% GDP growth persist, we could be facing an increase in roundwood demand of 30% by 2050, compared with 2020 figures. Under the current forestry regimes, this could result in demand for wood exceeding available domestic EU supply by 6%.

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UK to Scrap Green Levies for Heavy Industry in Push for Growth

By Philip Aldrick
Bloomberg News in the Financial Post
June 22, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Keir Starmer

LONDON — Energy costs will be cut for as many as 7,000 UK businesses as the government scraps green levies to level the playing field with foreign rivals and boost growth under its new ten-year Industrial Strategy. Big users of electricity will be exempted from several climate schemes from 2027 to reduce their bills by as much as 25% and protect 300,000 skilled jobs, the government said. Separately, heavy industries like steel, chemicals and glass will have their network charges, paid to maintain the grid, discounted by 90% from next year – up from 60% currently. …Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the strategy “marks a turning point for Britain’s economy.” …Labour insisted the exemptions would complement its “long-term mission for clean power” and… will be “funded through reforms to the energy system,” specifically higher UK carbon pricing. As part of the recent trade deal with the European Union, the government agreed to rejoin the EU carbon market.

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FutureMetrics: Changing UK Policy Could Boost Demand For Thermally Treated Wood Pellets

By Erin Voegele
Biomass Magazine
June 23, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

FutureMetrics LLC on June 17 published a white paper discussing how expected changes to U.K. bioenergy subsidies could cause the Drax and Lynemouth Power Stations to consider using thermally treated wood pellets. The two facilities are the world’s largest consumers of wood pellet fuel for power generation. Drax operates four 650 megawatt (MW) units that were converted from coal to wood pellets, while Lynmouth operates three 140 MW units that were converted from coal to wood pellets. Together, the facilities consume 8 to 9 million metric tons per year of wood pellets. Most of that fuel is sourced from North America and must be kept dry during storage and transportation. …FutureMetrics explains that this interim subsidy program is expected to create significant changes to the generation profiles of the Drax and Lynmouth facilities, as operations will only be supported when power from the plants is needed to meet demand. 

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Ancient trees are shipped to the UK, then burned – using billions in ‘green’ subsidies. Stop this madness now

By Dale Vince, owner of Ecotricity
The Guardian
June 21, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Dale Vince

[Opinion by Dale Vince] How green is this? We pay billions of pounds to cut down ancient forests in the US and Canada, ship the wood across the Atlantic in diesel tankers, then burn it in a Yorkshire-based power station. Welcome to the scandal of Drax, where Britain’s biggest polluter gets to play climate hero. The reality is that billions in public subsidies has enabled Drax to generate electricity by burning 300m trees. Now the government is trying to force through an extension that would grant Drax an estimated £1.8bn in public subsidies on top of the £11bn it has already pocketed, keeping this circus going until at least 2031. This isn’t green energy. The mathematics alone should horrify anyone who cares about value for money or the environment. Burning wood creates 18% more CO2 emissions than coal. Even if you replant every tree Drax destroys, it takes up to a century for new growth to reabsorb the carbon released.

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Biomass satellite returns striking first images of forests and more

The European Space Agency
June 23, 2025
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Today, at the Living Planet Symposium, ESA revealed the first stunning images from its groundbreaking Biomass satellite mission – marking a major leap forward in our ability to understand how Earth’s forests are changing and exactly how they contribute to the global carbon cycle. But these inaugural glimpses go beyond forests. Remarkably, the satellite is already showing potential to unlock new insights into some of Earth’s most extreme environments. Biomass – an Earth Explorer research mission developed within ESA’s FutureEO programme – was launch less than two months ago. This new mission is, therefore, still in the process of being commissioned, but its first set of images are stunning none the less. …Biomass is the first satellite to carry a P-band synthetic aperture radar, its signal capable of penetrating forest canopies to measure woody biomass – trunks, branches and stems. These measurements serve as a proxy for carbon storage, the assessment of which is the mission’s primary objective.

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