…Space heating accounts for 64 percent of Canadian residential, commercial and institutional energy consumption. The most common energy sources are natural gas, electricity and heating oil. Compare this with Sweden and Finland, where biomass is the dominant heat energy source. …The two countries use district heating networks and modern small-scale biomass boilers designed to the European standard EN 303-5. …Western European boiler manufacturers have invested heavily in the research and design of pellet boilers, creating efficient and clean-burning systems that are fully automatic and reliable. …These new technologies aren’t generally available in Canada because existing Canadian safety standards are only appropriate for fossil fuel-fired boilers. They do not consider the latest biomass-fired boiler technologies. The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) is working to adopt the European standard, EN 303-5:2002+A1:2023 Heating Boilers – Part 5: Heating boilers for solid fuels, manually and automatically stoked, nominal heat output of up to 500 kW as a National Standard of Canada by early 2026.
Two-thirds of Canadians agree the next federal government should prioritize action on climate change and protecting nature, a new poll has found. Sixty-two per cent of those surveyed said Canada should maintain its commitments on climate change despite the U.S. government’s recent decision to pull out of the United Nations Paris agreement to lower greenhouse gas emissions. A similar share of respondents supported Ottawa investing in renewable energy over fossil fuels. The poll questioned a panel of 1,548 Canadian adults in an online survey from March 7-10. Michael Polanyi, a policy and campaign manager at Nature Canada, said his group is concerned the $6.5 billion promised to industry last week does not come with guidelines that would prioritize workers and limit harms to nature. “It’s in Canada’s economic interest in terms of accessing global markets that we’re not further degrading forests,” Polanyi added, pointing to tightening EU regulations. “There’s a risk of closing market off to Canadian forest products.”
Eastwood Forests has deployed slightly more than half of its debut fund through deals that have included acquisitions in Costa Rica, Panama and Canada. North Carolina-headquartered Eastwood announced its acquisition of 14,500 ha of northern Vancouver Island timberland from Western Forest Products for $69.2 million in February. …Eastwood VP for transactions Prab Dahal said “Western has done a good job in managing the forests but our philosophies are slightly different in that we probably would not have as much openings and as much clear-cuts as Western did in the past,” said Dahal. …“It has more versatility than the typical natural forest that we look for elsewhere,” said Dahal. “We can manage this purely for carbon and still do good, or manage purely as a plantation and continuously manage with a harvesting level that is sustainable and can do good, financially, for our investors.” …Eastwood was established in 2022. 
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A major shift in environmental policy seems to spreading around the world. The most high-profile indicator of the shift is Germany, where Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Green Party coalition partner were thrown out of office on Sunday… The only question left is how far the green wave has receded in Germany — and across Europe. The French government has been accused of watering down environmental regulations. Elsewhere in Europe, green parties have been “kicked out of government” in Austria, Belgium and Ireland. While the Canadian policy establishment resists declaring a trend, the carbon war has moved down the priority ladder, as evidenced Monday during the French-language Liberal leadership debate. A party that’s about to pick Mark Carney, the planet’s top climate-policy powerbroker, as leader, rolled through two hours of debate without coming up with anything coherent to offset its about-face removal of its own consumer carbon tax.
Polarization is gripping the country and the centre isn’t holding, Environment and Climate Change Canada found when setting the country’s latest emissions reduction target. The department solicited feedback… to determine what Canada’s internationally binding 2035 pollution reduction obligations should be. …The results found that overcoming polarization is a major hurdle to implementing aggressive emissions reductions that climate scientists say is required to avoid catastrophic warming. About two-thirds of Canadians who participated support stronger measures to address climate change. “There was little middle ground, and very few people were satisfied with the status quo,” according to the findings. …When asked if the federal government is doing enough to fight climate change, 47% believe Canada needs to do more, compared to 36% that feel existing measures go too far. …Polarization is gripping the country and the centre isn’t holding, Environment and Climate Change Canada found when setting the country’s latest emissions reduction target.
Carbon offsets are unreliable, fraud-ridden financial tokens that often fail to make any environmental impact at all. And if Mark Carney gets his way, they’re going to be Canada’s next big industry. In his carbon reduction pitch, Carney 
When U.S. President Donald Trump was elected, Canadian officials issued a weaker than expected 2035 emission reduction target to account for the new political reality. Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said in an interview that after the U.S. election, the government looked at the opportunities and weighed the risks. Competitiveness was top of mind, more so than tariff threat, he said. “Certainly the United States does factor into the competitiveness issue,” he said. “Clearly the United States is moving away from any kind of regulation relating to climate.” …Wilkinson’s comments are the clearest indication yet of American influence on Canada’s plan to navigate the unfolding energy transition away from fossil fuels and toward clean energy. …Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, characterized Canada’s “weak” target as “obeying in advance” to U.S. interests.
OTTAWA, ON
If forest fires burn organic matter, and biochar is created by burning of organic matter shouldn’t forest soils be full of biochar? Not exactly. There is a difference between the burnt product of wildfire and biochar. Forest fires do produce charcoal, but while both charcoal and biochar are types of pyrogenic carbon, they’re not quite the same thing… Forests in Alberta have been affected by the mountain pine beetle, leaving behind dead trees that act as easy fuel for fires. These dead, dry trees are extremely flammable. The Canadian government has looked into using these dead trees as biofuels and some companies do use them to create biochar. Another source of organic matter for biochar is the material removed from forests as part of fuel management… Both of these methods help manage wildfire and could potentially increase the carbon sequestration of forests if the resulting biochar was added back into the forest’s soil.
…sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is considered the most practical option for decarbonizing air travel, which in Canada accounts for about four per cent of Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Biofuels made from … wood waste can lower fossil fuels’ carbon intensity and … require no major modifications to airplanes. B.C. has all of the conditions and resources needed to develop a sustainable aviation fuel industry, according to a panel discussion on SAF by the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade. But right now, most of the SAF that airlines are buying comes from suppliers in the U.S. and Europe. Despite the efforts of companies like Parkland Corp., a sustainable aviation fuel production industry is having a hard time getting off the ground in Canada. It all comes down to costs, and the Americans can produce SAF at a more cost competitive price than Canadian producers can, thanks in no small part to subsidies in the U.S.
British Columbia is set to require Canadian products to fulfil renewable fuel standards for gasoline and diesel, a move Energy Minister Adrian Dix said was aimed at building a “cleaner, stronger and more self-reliant” province. Dix said B.C. is too reliant on fuels from outside Canada, making the province vulnerable to market fluctuations and other external pressures. At the same time, he said the United States provides “dramatic subsidies” for its own biofuel industry to a degree that curtails the industry in B.C. and Canada. “For too long, B.C. biofuel producers have operated in a market where their American counterparts benefited from subsidies that gave them a considerable competitive advantage,” he told the news conference announcing the changes. …Ian Quartly, chief financial officer of Tidewater Renewables, joined Dix and said the changes are a positive step toward supporting an economically viable domestic renewable fuels industry.
…”We’re focused on … looking at clean fuel for the power plant, and attracting industries that use clean fuel to produce a value-added product,” said Denis Caron, the president and CEO of the Port of Belledune in New Brunswick. …The Conservation Council of New Brunswick is “first and foremost … happy” the port wants to transition away from fossil fuels to more renewable technologies, said Moe Qureshi, director of climate research and policy. But it’s “not very happy” about the biomass plan for N.B. Power’s Belledune generating station. Burning wood isn’t an efficient way to generate electricity, Qureshi said, and it would be difficult to regrow trees at the rate they are burnt up as wood pellets. …N.B. Power is looking at using black wood pellets at Belledune, Caron said. These are more energy dense and similar to coal, and may not require any refitting or capital spending at the power plant.
Prolonged droughts, wildfires and water shortages. Torrential downpours that overwhelm dams and cause catastrophic flooding. Around the globe, rising temperatures stoked by climate change are increasing the odds of both severe drought and heavier precipitation that wreak havoc on people and the environment. Rainfall can disappear for years only to return with a vengeance, as it did in California in 2023, with record-setting rain and snowfall. That led to heavy vegetation growth that provided fuel for the devastating January wildfires in Los Angeles after drought returned. But how can global warming cause both drier and wetter extremes? Here’s what experts say. It’s all about the water cycle. Water constantly moves between the Earth and its atmosphere. But that system — called the hydrological cycle — is speeding up as global temperatures get hotter, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal and gas.
Donald Trump’s administration is to reconsider the official finding that greenhouse gases are harmful to public health, a move that threatens to rip apart the foundation of the US’s climate laws, amid a stunning barrage of actions to weaken or repeal a host of pollution limits upon power plants, cars and waterways. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an extraordinary cavalcade of pollution rule rollbacks on Wednesday, led by the announcement it would potentially scrap a landmark 2009 finding by the US government that planet-heating gases, such carbon dioxide, pose a threat to human health. The so-called endangerment finding, which followed a supreme court ruling that the EPA could regulate greenhouse gases, provides the underpinning for all rules aimed at cutting the pollution that scientists have unequivocally found is worsening the climate crisis.
President Trump is pushing federal agencies to expand timber harvests… The U.S. Forest Service is already set to increase the number of trees it harvests to one of the highest levels since 2019, a result of Biden-era policies. But advocates argue that we need trees now more than ever and that this increase in timber harvest doesn’t make sense. The Forest Service is facing a lawsuit 
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a lawsuit from Republican attorneys general in 19 states aimed at blocking climate change suits against the oil and gas industry from Democratic-led states. The justices acted on an unusual Republican effort to file suit in the Supreme Court over the Democratic states’ use of their own state courts to sue fossil fuel companies for deceiving the public about the risks of their products contributing to climate change. The Supreme Court typically hears only appeals, but the Constitution gives the court authority to hear original lawsuits states file against each other. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they would have allowed the lawsuit to proceed for now. The justices don’t have the discretion to reject the complaint at this stage, Thomas wrote in a dissent that did not deal with the merits of the claim.
The Government has announced a new support mechanism for sustainable biomass generation post-2027. From 2027, Drax and other eligible large-scale biomass generators will be supported via a lowcarbon dispatchable CfD (Contract for Difference). If approved, the plan will keep the power station running until 2031. Under this proposed agreement, Drax Power Station can step in to increase generation when there isn’t enough electricity, helping to avoid the need to use more gas or import power from Europe. When there’s too much electricity on the UK grid, Drax can reduce generation, helping to balance the system. Importantly, the mechanism will result in a net saving for consumers. …The agreement also prioritises biomass sustainability. Drax supports these developments and will continue to engage with the UK Government on the implementation of any future reporting requirements.
The UK government has agreed a new funding arrangement with the controversial wood-burning Drax power station that it says will cut subsidies in half. …The new agreement will run from 2027 to 2031 and will see the power station only used as a back-up to cheaper renewable sources of power. …The government says the company currently receives nearly a billion pounds a year in subsidies and and predicts that figure will more than halve to £470m under the new deal. …The new agreement also states that 100% of the wood pellets Drax burns must be “sustainably sourced” and that “material sourced from primary and old growth forests” will not be able to receive support payments. All the pellets Drax burns are imported, with most of them coming from the USA and Canada. BBC has previously reported that Drax held logging licences in British Columbia, and used wood, including whole trees, from primary forests for its pellets.
As institutional interest in real asset investing grows, forestry is gaining recognition beyond its core enthusiasts for its ability to produce income and capital growth, alongside added benefits like carbon sequestration and biodiversity protection. However, trust in sustainability-focused investments remains a challenge. In EY’s 2024 Institutional Investor Survey, 85% of respondents said misleading claims about sustainability are more of a problem today than five years ago, despite regulators’ efforts to quash exaggerated ESG statements. …A persistent narrative is that established timberlands are better, safer investments than new greenfield developments. The truth is more nuanced. Greenfield projects, which involve reforesting degraded or underused land, offer an opportunity to achieve ‘additionality’ – a crucial component of effective carbon sequestration. …For forestry investors, the upshot is clear: regulatory uncertainty is currently a barrier to restoring widespread trust in carbon markets, and resolving this will take time.
Living trees absorb carbon, aiding climate change mitigation. But what role do dead trees play in carbon storage? UVM researchers found that large, downed trees in streams tie up tremendous stores of carbon—and this pool of carbon storage is growing over time. Moreover, large trees in streamside forests proved important for recruiting carbon into streams over time—reflecting the environmental value of big, old trees. “We know that about 20% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions come from land use and deforestation,” University of Vermont professor and study author Dr. William Keeton said, “but we can also use forests and other land cover as what we call a natural climate solution—finding ways to sequester and store more carbon in vegetation.” Keeton had long suspected that water-bound wood in old-growth forests was surely storing carbon—but how much? Turns out, quite a lot.
NEW YORK — Chestnut Carbon, a leading developer of nature-based carbon removal solutions, announced today that they have completed the first issuance and sale of Improved Forest Management (IFM) credits sourced from their conservation membership program branded as Forest Carbon Works. The issuance of more than 64,000 credits, or tons of carbon removal, were sold to multiple corporate buyers, including JPMorganChase. These transactions totaled $2.2 million. Chestnut’s U.S.-based IFM membership program, Forest Carbon Works, provides an opportunity for private forest owners to access income-generating carbon markets while preserving the integrity and legacy of their land. The program includes landowners in 36 states with more than 150,000 acres enrolled as of February 2025. These carbon removal credits are certified through Verra on the voluntary carbon market (VCM) and undergo rigorous third-party audits.
Can you fly airplanes with wood? The answer is: yes. It’s a very qualified “yes” — and it may not happen for many years — but the potential exists to manufacture sustainable aviation fuel from residual wood products and other non-petroleum-based sources that can reduce an airplane’s carbon footprint. “The technology to fly airplanes with wood exists but needs to be scaled up to show the true potential,” Rick Horton, executive vice president of Minnesota Forest Industries, told the House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee at an informational hearing Monday. Horton was one of several testifiers who said using sustainable aviation fuel to power airplanes is in its infancy and needs large-scale development — and probably government subsidies — to make it economically viable… Sustainable aviation fuel currently costs two to five times more than conventional jet fuel.
A new study is bringing hard data to understand how butterfly numbers have declined steeply in recent years, due to the combination of habitat loss, climate change, and pesticide exposure. A group of scientists is hoping to fix at least one of these problems for one species, by moving an entire forest in Mexico. The sacred fir trees, where monarch butterflies spend their winters, are struggling under climate change. Recently a team of researchers planted a thousand sacred fir trees at a new location at higher elevations to kickstart a new, future-proof forest for the butterflies to overwinter. Quirks producer Amanda Buckiewicz spoke to Cuauhtémoc Saénz Romero, a forest geneticist at the University of Michoacán in Mexico, and Greg O’Neill, a climate change adaptation scientist with the BC Provincial Government in the Ministry of Forests.
In the past, intact forests absorbed 7.8 billion tonnes of CO₂ annually – about a fifth of all human emissions – but their carbon storage is increasingly at risk from climate change and human activities such as deforestation. A new study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) shows that failing to account for the potentially decreasing ability of forests to absorb CO₂ could make reaching the Paris agreement targets significantly harder, if not impossible, and much more costly. “Right now, our climate strategies bet on forests not only remaining intact, but even expanding,” explains Michael Windisch, the study’s lead author and PIK guest scientist. “However, with escalating wildfires like in California, and continued deforestation in the Amazon, that’s a gamble. Climate change itself puts forests’ immense carbon stores at risk.” … “We must act immediately to safeguard the carbon stored in forests,” Windisch emphasises. 
BENGALURU/JAKARTA
The European Union is on track to miss its 2030 carbon sequestration targets for forests. A new report says forest-based carbon removal needs clearer policies and more funding. Ongoing deforestation, land degradation, and unsustainable land-use practices highlight the need for a policy shift. Data from the latest European Environment Agency (EEA) monitoring report, details 28 key indicators assessing targets across sectors, including climate change, biodiversity, pollution reduction, and sustainable resource use. Biodiversity and ecosystem conservation goals are closely tied to forest health. The EU is not on track to meet its targets for increasing forest connectivity or reversing the decline in common bird populations, which reflects broader ecosystem degradation. Despite existing legislation, pressures from agriculture, urban expansion, and resource extraction continue to impact forest ecosystems.
Sweden might fail to meet its and the EU’s carbon neutrality targets after recent environmental policy shifts, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) warned in a report published Wednesday. Long considered a champion in environmental protection and the fight against climate change, the Scandinavian country has set a goal of net zero emissions by 2045, five years ahead of the European Union’s target. But Sweden might not be able meet either of those goals, according to a review conducted by the OECD, a 38-member group of mostly developed nations. “Over the last decade, the country has cut its greenhouse gas emissions faster than the EU average,” the report said. “However, recent policy shifts, particularly in the transport sector, have put into question Sweden’s ability to meet EU and domestic climate targets.” …In January, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) criticised Sweden for not adequately protecting primary and old-growth forests from logging.
Denmark has long been praised for its transition to renewable energy, with renewable energy use rising from 6% in 1990 to 42.8% in 2022. However, behind this achievement lies an overdependence on woody biomass, which now accounts for up to 68% of its total renewable energy use. This growth has been sustained through direct and indirect subsidies, often exceeding those allocated to wind and solar energy. Denmark’s dependence on woody biomass is largely fuelled by imports from Estonia and Latvia. The country ranks among the largest, if not the largest, importer of woody biomass from the Baltic region, with 52% of its wood chips and pellets coming from these two nations. …Intensive logging is also devastating Estonian and Latvian bird populations. 
LONDON, March 12 – British energy regulator Ofgem said on Wednesday that it had not found evidence of a breach of sustainability obligations by power company Drax, in the watchdog’s review of reports prepared by auditor KPMG. Renewable power generators in Britain can receive renewable obligation (RO) certificates which can then be sold to energy suppliers who use them to sell renewable electricity products to customers. For biomass power plants to qualify for the certificates they must show at least 70% of their biomass fuel comes from sustainable sources. Green groups have long criticised the sustainability credentials of biomass power plants, which burn wood pellets to generate electricity. In 2023, regulator Ofgem opened an investigation into whether Drax was in breach of annual reporting requirements under the RO scheme. Ofgem said it reviewed over 3,000 documents and did not find evidence to support claims that sustainability obligations had been breached.
The harvesting and burning of forest biomass to produce energy continues to surge, according to a new report entitled 
Norwegian forestry companies are making history by revolutionizing how timber is transported. Beginning in 2027, Viken AT Market and AT Skog will be the first in the forestry industry to ship timber on zero-emission vessels—a game-changing move that signals a dramatic shift toward sustainable maritime logistics. This breakthrough is made possible through a partnership with Skarv Shipping, which will provide vessels powered by ammonia and electricity, significantly reducing emissions compared to conventional diesel-powered ships. Norway’s timber industry plays a crucial role in the country’s economy, exporting approximately 1 million tons of timber annually to European markets. However, most of this transport has relied on traditional diesel-powered vessels, which contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. In an effort to push the industry forward, Viken AT Market is committing to zero-emission transport, securing a long-term shipping agreement with Skarv Shipping and Arriva Shipping.
Turkey is poor in oil and gas while its renewable energy sector is heavily reliant on a mix of hydro, wind and solar. But another element is heating up: biofuel – fuel derived directly from biomass, such as wood or plant matter – is gaining interest domestically and creating an export market not available to other renewables. Demand for and output of biomass pellets used in stoves, furnaces and heaters as an alternative to coal or wood to cope with Turkey’s often freezing winters have increased in recent years. Produced by crushing and compressing wood waste, the pellets have a higher per-kilo energy output than gas, coal or oil, and far lower emission levels, according to promoters. Studies estimate Turkey has the raw material to produce up to 1.8 million tonnes of pellets annually, although installed processing capacity has yet to reach this level.
LONDON – The UK government and Drax, opens new tab have agreed a deal that will halve the energy producer’s subsidies over 2027-2031, while ensuring the group uses more sustainable sources of woody biomass, the two sides said on Monday. Drax is Britain’s largest renewable power generator. With the help of government subsidies that run until 2027, it has converted four former coal plants to use biomass to provide around 6% of the country’s electricity. Following a consultation on extending the subsidies, the government said it “cannot allow Drax to operate in the way it has done before or with the level of subsidy it received in the past”. “Biomass currently plays an important role in our energy system, but we are conscious of concerns about sustainability and the level of subsidy biomass plants have received in the past,” Energy Minister Michael Shanks said in a statement, which did not disclose the exact figures of the subsidy.
Green campaigners fear ministers are poised to award billions of pounds in fresh subsidies to Drax power station, despite strong concerns that burning trees to produce electricity is bad for the environment. Drax burns wood to generate about 8% of the UK’s “green” power, and 4% of overall electricity. This is classed as “low-carbon” because the harvested trees are replaced by others that take up carbon from the atmosphere as they grow. But many studies have shown that wood burning harms the environment, by destroying forests, and because of the decades-long time lag between the immediate release of carbon dioxide CO2 from burning and the growth to maturity of replacement trees. Drax currently receives billions of pounds in subsidies from energy bill payers, at the rate of about £2m a day according to Greenpeace, but these are scheduled to run out in 2027. A government decision to continue the support payments beyond the cut-off could come on Monday.
Swedes and Finns have long monetized their forests. EU climate goals — seen as a threat to both family wealth and the two national economies — are fast becoming a lightning rod for anger. …In Sweden and neighboring Finland, forestry is, to all intents and purposes, a retail asset class. In Sweden, some 300,000 people own, in total, half of the country’s forests. In Finland, 60% of forests belong to 600,000 individuals. Owners like Velander have been able to work their land with relatively light regulations, generally free to harvest trees when and as they chose. The way these small forest owners traditionally manage their land is, they contend, also good for the climate. But this approach, along with their investments, is under threat from a growing number of European Union regulations aimed at protecting biodiversity and reducing the bloc’s carbon emissions. In Sweden and Finland these measures have been interpreted as a potential ban on logging. [to access the full story a Bloomberg subscription is required]