Tuesday, April 30, 2013

CPI, Green Groups Lobby Gov. to Limit Support for Biomass

Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) has joined forces with a number of environmental groups and fibre-based trade associations to lobby Government to limit support for energy-only biomass.
Organisations supporting the campaign include the RSPB, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, the
Wood Panel Industries Federation, the UK Forest Products Association and international wood product businesses Egger, Kronospan and Norbord. They have jointly written to Government warning that the pursuit of generating electricity from wood threatens to backfire, both in terms of the environment and industry.
The campaign raises concerns over Government plans to subsidise biomass electricity which could see the sector consuming the equivalent of up to six times the UK's annual forestry harvest by 2017, with catastrophic results. The group highlights that this huge new demand for wood will put up prices, risking the survival of existing industries - in wood, wood panels, packaging, construction, furniture and paper - and many of the 40,000 jobs that rely on them.