Enviva reports that under RED III, woody biomass is set to remain a renewable energy source in the UK. In related news: John Mullinder says the ‘investigative case’ against Paper Excellence is full of innuendo; climate activists continue to question the sustainability of biomass; and the hidden carbon impacts of getting mass timber wrong.
In other news: FSC decides not to pursue its ‘genetic engineering learning process’; BC’s first Carbon Management Blueprint is released; West Virginia’s Clay lumber mill is engulfed by fire; Ohio’s Taylor Lumber is up for auction; and forestry investment updates from the UK and Australia.
Finally, and sadly, Riverside Forest Products pioneer Gerald Raboch died at 94.
Kelly McCloskey, Tree Frog Editor
Japanese construction firms are using loopholes to keep buying wood from Russia, despite the sanctions triggered by the attack on Ukraine, activists say. London-based environmental group Earthsight has accused the Japanese government of not acting to halt imports of more than $410 million worth of what they call “conflict timber” from Russia following the attack on Ukraine. The activists claim that, despite sanctions imposed by Tokyo, Japanese business continue to buy sawn lumber from Russia’s Far East. …In April 2022, Japan banned imports of logs, wood chips and veneer from Russia, although, by that time, the move was purely symbolic. Moscow had already outlawed exports of those same products to Japan on the grounds that it was an “unfriendly country.” …The government of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida insists that it is following international sanctions on Moscow.
OTTAWA — The federal budget acknowledges that a lack of affordable housing in Canada is having a negative effect on the Canadian economy. …But the budget mostly highlights previously announced measures on housing and housing affordability. The most notable among them is the new tax-free First Home Savings Account (FHSA), which the budget said would launch on April 1, 2023. The account works like a Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA) and allows first-time home buyers… to make tax-deductible contributions and tax-free withdrawals to purchase a home. …The budget did announce one housing measure: an additional $4 billion over seven years, starting in 2024-25, for the development of an Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy. …The government also made a number of changes the day before the budget to new rules that restrict and penalize foreign ownership of real estate in Canada.
Architects are increasingly using mass timber in the hopes of creating net-zero buildings but carbon assessments are missing key sources of potential emissions, researchers tell Dezeen. The standard method for determining a building’s overall carbon footprint is a whole-building life-cycle assessment (LCA) that breaks down emissions at every stage – from the sourcing of raw materials to their ultimate disposal. These calculations tend to indicate significantly lower emissions for timber structures compared to those made entirely out of concrete and steel. But experts warned that LCAs only tell part of the story. “LCAs do not typically consider anything that happens in the forest,” said forester and timberland manager Mark Wishnie. Because so few mass-timber buildings have been constructed – let alone demolished – researchers are also unable to reliably forecast what will happen to engineered timbers at end of their life and what emissions this would entail.
In February 2022 the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) announced the start of a process to discuss GE (Genetic Engineering) outside of FSC certified area. The FSC International Board appointed a Panel of Experts to provide advice on how a GE Learning Process could help FSC gain sufficient and trusted knowledge on developments in genetic engineering in forestry. 
VANCOUVER, BC – The B.C. Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE) has released the 
Enviva welcomed news that the European Union’s trilogue negotiations concluded with an agreement on the Renewable Energy Directive III (REDIII), adding… that woody biomass will continue to be recognised as a renewable energy source. The biomass producer… understands the agreement will not impose restrictions on primary wood biomass. Instead, it will be counted as 100% renewable and zero-rated in the EU Emissions Trading System, provided sustainability criteria are fulfilled. The agreement is also expected to include assurances that electricity-only plants already receiving subsidies will continue to do so. There is also likely to be continuing availability of financial support to electricity-only installations where bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is used. …Enviva does not expect the agreed final text of the Directive to be available for a number of weeks, and the next step is for the agreement to be formally endorsed by the Council and Parliament.
To bolster its climate-friendly credentials, Europe is increasingly reliant on an energy source as old as fire itself — dead trees. …Much of the forests… are in the southeastern United States. A recently published a report on the future of biomass and biogas as a method of transitioning toward a carbon-free Europe by 2050. Mr. Göss found that as of today…“The larger part of the EU’s renewable energy mix is, made up of biomass … in different forms (liquid, gaseous, solid) and origins (wood, grasses, agricultural residues by-products, etc).” In the continent’s largest countries, biomass plants are cropping up in the thousands. …The sustainability of woody biomass — most notably trees — has been questioned by climate activists. …Despite these concerns, the European Union and its legislative body, the European parliament, have fully embraced the practice. …Tree farms in the southeast provide tens of millions of tons of biomass to Europe every year.
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