Category Archives: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy

Google Canada announces new research grants to bolster Canada’s AI ecosystem

By Google Canada
Cision Newswire
March 18, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

OTTAWA, ON – Google Canada will announce new research grants that will help pave the way for the future of AI in Canada. Google.org will provide a total of $2.7 million in grant funding to the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) and the International Center of Expertise of Montreal on AI (CEIMIA) to support AI research in areas such as sustainability and the responsible development of AI. …The Google.org grant to CIFAR will support its Accelerated Decarbonization program, which brings together experts in carbon capture, storage, and utilization, biochemistry, chemistry, biology and more, to address the carbon cycle and offer new ways of solving climate-related problems. …”Climate change is one of the most pressing challenges facing humanity. This partnership enables our CIFAR researchers to drive impact and advance work towards a core piece of the climate change puzzle,” said, Director, Research and Lead, Impact at CIFAR.

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Government of Canada supports Indigenous climate action with new funding stream under the Indigenous Leadership Fund

By Environment and Climate Change Canada
Cision Newswire
March 12, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

SAINT JOHN, NB – Indigenous partners are making significant contributions to lowering Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions and producing green energy through Indigenous-owned and Indigenous-led renewable energy projects. Supporting Indigenous climate leadership is key to helping Canada meet its 2030 emissions reduction target and net-zero emissions by 2050. Today, the Honourable Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, announced a new designated funding stream under the Low Carbon Economy Fund’s Indigenous Leadership Fund. The designated funding stream is open until March 31, 2027, for eligible applicants who are not already included in the funding streams for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. This can include Indigenous-owned businesses; corporations and not-for-profit organizations; Métis Settlements; and Indigenous research, academic, or educational institutions. Through this new stream, up to $7.39 million will be spent to support Indigenous-owned and Indigenous-led renewable energy, energy efficiency, or low-carbon heating projects that provide benefits to Indigenous peoples and communities.

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Canada ignored audit’s call to count logging emissions, says NDP critic

By Stefan Labbé
Business in Vancouver
March 12, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

Laurel Collins & Jagmeet Singh

The NDP’s federal environment critic says Canada is ignoring calls to close loopholes in how it reports carbon emissions from logging — what some experts suggest could amount to 90 million tonnes a year. A March 2023 audit from Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development Jerry DeMarco found the federal government had failed to properly account for emissions from the country’s forestry sector. …A year later, Laurel Collins, NDP member of Parliament for Victoria and the party’s environment and climate change critic, said the government’s response has been to take a “really narrow review” of how it counts forestry emissions at the same time Canada experienced its worst wildfire season in recorded history. …By maintaining the status quo and portraying the logging sector as an industry that absorbs as many emissions as it releases, Collins told Trudeau companies are unduly given an advantage over other sectors when it comes to things like carbon pricing.

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Canada’s logging emissions must be on the ledger

By Michael Polanski, Nature Canada
The National Observer
March 6, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

This month, in the wake of intensive scrutiny from policymakers and civil society, two federal departments, Environment and Climate Change Canada and Energy and Natural Resources Canada, are launching a review of how the federal government accounts for GHG emissions from the forestry sector. …Unfortunately, the review is leaving one of the biggest issues — a biased approach to reporting emissions from industrial logging — off the table. …This unbalanced accounting for wildfires leads to the misleading portrayal of clearcut logging in Canada as carbon-neutral when, in fact, logging is a carbon polluter on the scale of the high-emitting agriculture and building sectors. …Instead, the review only addresses the question of what baseline should be used to assess progress in emissions reductions in the sector (2005 or a business-as-usual reference level). It ignores calls from the environment commissioner and others to also review the way Canada estimates and reports logging emissions.

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Climate adaptation clearly reflected in Housing & Climate Task Force Blueprint

By Climate Proof Canada
Cision Newswire
March 5, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

OTTAWA, ON – In response to the Housing & Climate Task Force’s release today of its Blueprint for More and Better Housing, Jason Clark, Chair, Climate Proof Canada, issued the following statement: “Canada needs 5.8 million new homes by 2030 to restore housing affordability. Climate Proof Canada is pleased that 18 of the recommendations from its National Climate Adaptation Summit were cited in the formation of the Blueprint. One of the requirements of the National Adaptation Strategy (NAS) is that resilience must be incorporated into all infrastructure investments by 2024. …Climate Proof Canada developed a series of recommendations to guide federal investment that will enable Canada to make rapid, tangible progress on the targets set out in the NAS and become more climate resilient. A range of immediate actions that do not require additional budgetary investment was also identified.”

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El Niño’s final stand; A mild but moody spring across Canada

By the Weather Network
Cision Newswire
February 28, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

OAKVILLE, ON – What an extraordinarily mild winter it has been across Canada! While the past season included a monumental snowstorm for Atlantic Canada and a stretch of severe cold across western Canada, El Niño stole the show with one of the warmest winters on record and minimal snow for many. Will this pattern continue through spring? To answer this question, The Weather Network has issued their Spring Forecast for the months of March, April and May.”El Niño is fading, and La Niña appears to be getting ready to take the stage as we head towards summer,” said Chris Scott, Chief Meteorologist with The Weather Network. “Therefore, we expect this spring will feature profound mood swings across Canada as periods of late winter-like weather interrupt our journey towards consistent warm weather. However, we expect that warmer-than-normal temperatures will outduel the cold weather for most Canadians this spring.” Below is a more detailed look at the conditions expected in each province this spring.

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After a warm winter, Canada may see more drought, wildfires in the spring

By Uday Rana
Global News
February 27, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada

As Canada continues to experience warmer-than-usual temperatures this winter, the country must gear up for extreme weather events, including drought, wildfires and floods in the spring and summer, experts told Global News. Global News meteorologist Anthony Farnell said this year’s high temperatures were due to El Niño, which is a phenomenon where the water in the equatorial region of the Pacific warms and weather patterns across North America change. “This year was likely even warmer because of the effects of climate change. In the last few days, winter has returned to Western Canada but a large ridge is pumping very mild air across the eastern half of the country,” Farnell said. Kent Moore, a professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Toronto Mississauga, said this warm weather has also meant reduced precipitation.

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Drax: UK power station still burning rare forest wood

By Joe Crowley
BBC Panorama
February 28, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, International

Drax power company has received £6bn in UK green subsidies from burning wood from some of the world’s most precious forests. Papers obtained by BBC Panorama show Drax took timber from rare forests in Canada it had claimed were “no go areas”. It comes as the government decides whether to give the firm’s Yorkshire site billions more in environmental subsidies. Drax says its wood pellets are “sustainable and legally harvested”. The Drax Power Station … is a key part of the government’s drive to meet its climate targets. …electricity produced from burning pellets is classified as renewable and treated as emission-free. ..Ecologist Michelle Connolly, from the British Columbia campaign group Conservation North, says making pellets from old forests can never be sustainable. “Old-growth forests in British Columbia are almost gone because of 70 years of logging to feed sawmills and pulp mills, and Drax is helping push our remaining ones off the cliff,” she says.

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Expanding Wood Pellet Use in Taiwan

Wood Pellet Association of Canada
February 23, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, International

Taiwan is facing a challenge of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. …the country aims to increase the use of renewable energy from 10 percent to 20 percent by 2025. This is a part of Taiwan’s nuclear-free homeland vision and national goal to reach net-zero carbon emission in 2050. Developing renewable energy is the most important implementation component to reach the goal and wood pellets are a top priority. The Wood Pellet Association of Canada, together with the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei and the Taiwan Bio-energy Technology Development Association, is organizing a trade mission to Taiwan on March 11-15, 2024. …The 2024 Taiwan Solid Biofuels Conference on March 14, 2024 in Taipei includes information on production, transportation, storage, loading and unloading, pricing,  current usage, and future prospects. The conference will help domestic industries and government agencies understand international solid biofuel development and market trends and help plan for a low-carbon transformation.

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How analysts say Canada could wipe out the CO2 emissions of its entire economy

By Pamela Heaven
The Financial Post
February 26, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, International

Canada’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have been laudable, but there is a way we could do so much more, says a report from National Bank of Canada. So far efforts have been largely focused within our boundaries, but considering that Canada is responsible for less than 1.5% of global emissions, these efforts could be for naught because other countries are increasing emissions by a far greater magnitude. …Canada once said that there was no business case for meaningful increases in LNG exports to support Germany and Japan, but National analysts hope India could be a different story. India recently announced plans to double its coal production by 2030, which National estimates would increase its power sector emissions from coal to roughly the equivalent of Canada’s entire greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. National says there is a better way even if it means supplying India with a fossil fuel alternative.

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Climate change denial bullying declining — but not fast enough

By Suzanne Simard and Steph Troughton
The Vancouver Sun
February 27, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

In recent years, a noteworthy shift has occurred in the conversations surrounding climate change. What was once a landscape overflowing with blatant denial and misinformation has gradually transformed into a more balanced science-based discussion. The era of climate change denial is slowly waning, and in its place, is a growing recognition of the urgent need for action. …The reason for this shift is clear: The evidence supporting the reality of climate change has become overwhelming. Scientists from the University of B.C.’s faculty of forestry are among those speaking out about the world’s climate crisis. Hydrology expert and pioneer of applying the probabilistic framework of attribution science to flood risk, Dr. Younes Alila reminds us that climate change and clearcut logging undeniably contribute to record-breaking floods and droughts. His team’s research routinely shows B.C.’s heightened risk from climate and land-use changes are exacerbated by forest cover loss.

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Vancouver Island firm BioFlame producing alternative heating source for the masses

By Don Bodger
The Tofino-Ucluelet Westerly News
February 27, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada West

Marcus Woernle

CHEMAINUS, BC — Marcus Woernle is a young innovator in an ever-evolving forest industry. Woernle, 38, has utilized his experience from the time he previously worked at the Crofton pulp mill as a power engineer to meet growing demands for the residential and commercial heat market while being environmentally conscious at the same time. That led him to establish BioFlame Briquettes, with a production plant located in the Chemainus Industrial Park. He’s the sole owner of the company, with a couple of additional employees and the chance for rapid expansion of the workforce in the future. “We make sawdust briquettes, they’re compressed sawdust bricks,” Woernle pointed out. “What we’ve recently got into which I think is going to be the future is we make a smaller briquette.” With limited natural gas available in many parts of the region, it seemed a natural to him for the development of the product for wood stoves.

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Brian Mulroney ‘got’ the issue of climate change, long before others did

By Donald Wright political science professor, University of New Brunswick
The Ottawa Citizen
March 18, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

Brian Mulroney

Brian Mulroney, whose state funeral is Saturday, is rightly remembered for his leadership on acid rain, yet he also took climate change seriously. Put simply, he got it when most world leaders didn’t, and some still don’t, or at least one doesn’t. Indeed, Mulroney was one of only two heads of state to attend the first World Conference on the Changing Atmosphere. Held in Toronto in June 1988, the conference brought together more than 300 scientists and policymakers from over 40 countries. That the conference — later dubbed the “Woodstock of climatology” — was hosted by Canada was Mulroney’s doing. It reflected his environmentalism and confirmed his belief in Canada as a middle power and helpful fixer on the global stage. Welcoming delegates to the World Conference on the Changing Atmosphere, Mulroney didn’t mince his words. It “is not just about the atmosphere, it is not just about the environment, it is about the future of the planet itself.”

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CHAR Tech and Lake Nipigon Forest Management Inc. Sign Partnership Agreement

By CHAR Technologies Ltd.
Globe Newswire
March 13, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

THUNDER BAY, Ontario — CHAR Technologies, a leader in sustainable energy solutions, is proud to announce the formalization of a partnership agreement with the First Nations co-operative Lake Nipigon Forest Management Inc., marking a significant milestone for both parties as they advance forestry sustainability programs in Northern Ontario. The partnership, Lake Nipigon Forest Sustainable Energy Solutions, builds upon the foundation laid by the Memorandum of Understanding signed in April 2023. LNFMI is a forest management co-operative comprised of four local First Nation Communities who hold the Sustainable Forest License on the Lake Nipigon Forest… The Partnership will continue advancing development of the jointly-owned facility modeled after CHAR Tech’s flagship facility in Thorold, Ontario. The project is projected to annually produce 500,000 gigajoules of Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) and 10,000 tonnes of biocarbon and begin operations by 2026.

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Government of Canada invests $15 Million in Clean Fuels Projects in the Niagara Region and Across Canada

By Natural Resources Canada
Cision Newswire
March 8, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

THOROLD, ON — The Honourable Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, announced a federal investment of $15 million to support six clean fuels projects across Canada, including $10 million for two projects in the Niagara region. The investments include: Over $5 million to CHAR Technologies to support FEED studies that will enable CHAR to replicate their first-of-its-kind woody-biomass-to-renewable-energy facility in Thorold, Ontario in other parts of Canada. Supported by an existing investment of $5 million from NRCan, CHAR is finalizing its construction of its clean fuels production facility in Thorold, which will convert woody biomass to renewable energy like RNG and biocarbon. The new NRCan funding will enable CHAR Technologies to replicate this work at four new facilities in Kirkland Lake, Ontario; Drayton Valley, Alberta; and Saint Félicien and La Salle, Quebec and create a distributed network of low-carbon fuels production facilities across three provinces in Canada.

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Cellulose nanocrystals developed at McGill stand to create opportunities in Quebec’s forestry sector

The McGill Reporter
March 5, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

TEMISCAMING, Quebec — Researchers at a McGill University chemistry lab led by Professor Mark Andrews may not have imagined that their work on cellulose nanocrystals would end up creating economic opportunity in the northwestern Quebec region of Abitibi-Témiscamingue. Their quest to get cellulose nanocrystals to yield vibrant iridescent colours led to the founding in 2016 of Anomera. Today, the company’s range of cellulose nanocrystal products, which are created from wood pulp and wood waste, have an array of environmentally friendly applications, ranging from replacing microplastics in cosmetics to reducing the carbon footprint of products like concrete. Two years ago, Anomera opened a $30 million manufacturing facility in Témiscaming. At present, it provides jobs for nine people in the region, with another 15 employees at the company’s offices and laboratories in downtown Montreal. More importantly, Anomera provides an innovative and sustainable path to diversify Quebec’s forestry products sector.

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$500K helping Timmins forestry company reduce reliance on natural gas

By Maija Hoggett
Timmins Today
March 2, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

TIMMINS, Ontario — A local business feeling the pinch of the carbon tax will be able to reduce its reliance on natural gas with seed money from the province. Forestry Service is getting $500,600 to create a compost heat recovery system, which will allow the second-generation forestry company in Timmins to heat one of its buildings and sell some of the compost. The funding is one of 12 projects in the northeast getting a cut of $6.1 million through the third phase of the Ontario forest biomass program. …The projects announced this week, said Minister Graydon Smith, are a “diverse range of research, innovation, and modernization initiatives that will help develop the potential of Ontario’s forest biomass resources.” …The project will reduce the operation’s reliance on natural gas, extend its season in the greenhouse, and potentially allow them to sell the compost generated locally. 

Additional coverage in My Kaphearst Now: Forestry biomass projects get $60-million over three years from provincial government fund

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Ontario Makes Historic Investment to Expand Forest Sector Innovation

By Natural Resources and Forestry
The Government of Ontario
March 1, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: Canada, Canada East

TIMMINS – The Government of Ontario is making an historic investment of $60 million in the Forest Biomass Program. Over the next three years, the program will make targeted investments in forest sector initiatives to develop the economic potential and environmental benefits of underutilized wood and mill by-products, known as forest biomass. “This new Forest Biomass Program funding will grow businesses, strengthen communities and put workers to work,” said Graydon Smith, Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry. “We are investing in the technology, the people and the expertise that drive our forest sector into the future – and together, we are achieving our government’s plan for forest sector prosperity.” The announcement of additional funding follows the Forest Biomass Program’s third phase of investment, which committed more than $6.1 million to 12 research, innovation and modernization initiatives.

Additional coverage from the Ontario Forest Industries Association: Ontario Forest Industries Association Applauds Government’s $60 Million Investment in Forest Biomass Program

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U.S. Department of Energy: How America Can Sustainably Produce More Than One Billion Tons of Biomass Per Year

By The Department of Energy
Government of the United States
March 15, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today released the 2023 Billion-Ton Report (BT23), which shows that the U.S. could sustainably triple its production of biomass to more than 1 billion tons per year. The report—the fourth in a series—finds that 1 billion tons of biomass could satisfy over 100% of the projected demand for airplane fuel in the country, allowing the U.S. to fully decarbonize the aviation industry with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). …The BT23 report analyzes approximately sixty biomass resources, several of which have never before been the subject of a DOE Billion-Ton assessment. These include winter oilseed crops, trees and brush harvested from forests to prevent wildfires, macroalgae such as seaweed cultivated in ocean farms, and carbon dioxide from industrial plants. …Additionally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently released the Plan to Enable the Bioeconomy in America: Building a Resilient Biomass Supply to boost resiliency for domestic biobased product manufacturing…

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USDA Outlines Vision to Strengthen the American Bioeconomy through a More Resilient Biomass Supply Chain

USDA Department of Agriculture
March 14, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

WASHINGTON – The USDA released a plan that will boost biomass supply chain resiliency for domestic biobased product manufacturing, while also advancing environmental sustainability and market opportunities for small and mid-sized producers. The report — Building a Resilient Biomass Supply: A Plan to Enable the Bioeconomy in America — is one of the key USDA deliverables Executive Order 14081, which was issued in 2022 and was meant to catalyze action inside and outside of government to advance America’s domestic bioeconomy. …Published alongside the Plan is an Implementation Framework that identifies actions USDA will take in the next year to increase available cultivated biomass, invest in infrastructure for biobased products, and support the responsible development of the biomass supply chain. USDA also released a fact sheet outlining the Department’s 2023 bioeconomy accomplishments, which include $772 million in investments for research, development, and infrastructure involving biofuels, fertilizer production, crop innovations, biobased products and more.

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How Clean Energy Tax Breaks Could Fuel a US Wood Burning Boom

By James Bruggers
Inside Climate News
March 15, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, International

Businesses that burn wood to produce energy have struggled in the US to compete economically, even as wood-pellet exports to Europe from states like Alabama and North Carolina have soared with overseas subsidies. But the industry’s domestic fortunes could soon change. With the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) designed to take on climate change through billions of dollars of direct appropriations or tax breaks, forest biomass-to-energy could potentially see sizable growth domestically. …The Biden administration, including the U.S. Treasury Department, is now navigating competing claims about the risks and benefits of burning wood to the climate and to the health of forests. Treasury will have a key role to play in deciding which businesses get tax breaks even as provisions of the IRA were written so as to not overtly pick winners and losers among various types of energy production, such as natural gas, wind, solar or biomass. …Environmental groups are watching the Treasury Department closely.

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US Securities and Exchange Commission approves rule requiring some companies to report GHG emissions

By Suman Naishadham
The Associated Press
March 6, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday approved a rule that will require some public companies to report their greenhouse gas emissions and climate risks, after last-minute revisions that weakened the directive in the face of strong pushback from companies. The rule was one of the most anticipated in recent years from the nation’s top financial regulator, drawing more than 24,000 comments from companies, auditors, legislators and trade groups over a two-year process. It brings the U.S. closer to the European Union and California, which moved ahead earlier with corporate climate disclosure rules. …Since the SEC proposed a rule two years ago, experts had said it was likely to face litigation almost immediately. …The weakened rule doesn’t require companies to report some indirect emissions known as Scope 3. Those don’t come from a company or its operations, but happen along its supply chain or that result when a consumer uses a product, such as gasoline.

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Biomass Power Association Re-Brands as American Biomass Energy Association

American Biomass Energy Association
March 5, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

Richmond, VA – The Biomass Power Association (BPA) announced today it is changing its name, effective immediately, to the American Biomass Energy Association (ABEA). The announcement was made by ABEA Executive Director Carrie Annand on the first day of the 17th Annual International Biomass Conference & Expo in Richmond. The American Biomass Energy Association will seamlessly step into BPA’s role leading the charge to advance the use of clean, renewable, and reliable domestic biomass energy through legislative and regulatory advocacy. ABEA members own and operate more than 80 biomass power plants in 20 states across the U.S. and produce eco-friendly renewable energy solutions that provide communities with always-on, locally-sourced power that replaces the need for foreign oil or burning fossil fuels. Most ABEA member companies convert wood and wood products including forest debris, wood “leftovers” from logging activities, and other discarded items into clean electricity.

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Forest Investors Debate What to Do With All Their Trees: Timber or Carbon Credits?

By Yusuf Khan
The Wall Street Journal
March 4, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, International

Investment managers who have bought up forestland are going tree by tree to figure out whether they should be felled for timber or kept up for carbon-credit generation. Growing demand for credits means investing in forests isn’t just about producing timber, but it can take a lot of legwork to determine what role each tree should play in a portfolio, as well as ensure it is delivering its promised environmental benefit if left standing. …Manulife, which has 5.4 million acres of forest in its investment portfolio, calculates the value of each tree to inform its harvest strategy. Every tree in a forest has to be evaluated based on species growth rates and product value. If the carbon credit value is high enough, it stays up even if for just a few more years. If not, it’s cut down for timber. …Kernohan said that until recently, forest land wasn’t valuable enough to be considered. [to access the full story a WSJ subscription is required]

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Invasive Species Threaten Climate Change Preparedness and Resilience

The Nature Conservancy
February 28, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

Invasive species are a significant threat to climate-preparedness and resilience, according to a new paper published for the National Invasive Species Council by the Invasive Species Advisory Committee. The paper, Invasive Species Threaten the Success of Climate Change Adaptation Efforts, addresses one of the most critical intersections between invasive species and climate change—where invasive species are posing a direct threat to natural climate solutions and climate resilience—and provides recommendations for action at the federal level. …“Our research confirmed that US federal agencies have not yet actively integrated invasive species management into climate planning.” …According to the paper and past research, invasive species are already a major barrier to the successful implementation of climate adaptation and mitigation plans; they are currently hindering the natural environment’s ability to sequester carbon emissions and protect communities from the increased threats of climate-amplified weather events such as flooding and storm surges.

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Bioenergy: A US$500 Billion Market Opportunity

By Wood Mackenzie
Forbes Magazine
February 28, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States

The energy transition is a story of electrification. But rapid electrification can pose huge challenges to heavy industry, reliant on fossil fuels to provide high-temperature heat; and to grid operators, beginning to buckle under the weight of transmission bottlenecks and variable renewables. …Bioenergy has emerged as the leading drop-in solution to decarbonise sectors resistant to electrification. Right now, the bioenergy market is currently valued at US$44 billion and by 2050, it’s expected to grow to US$125 billion. …New technologies can harness residues from farming and forestry to municipal and industrial waste, turning what was once thought to be worthless refuse into renewable, carbon neutral, and versatile energy resources. …The problem lies not so much in the demand for these fuels, but rather in the supply. …In most cases the cost of producing upgraded biomass, biomethane, and biofuels exceeds the cost of fossil-fuel equivalents. Policy support is key.

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Golden State Natural Resources’ wood pellet project and the debate over California’s Forests

By Zoe Meyer
Sierra Sun
March 8, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

TRUCKEE, Calif. – Golden State Natural Resources (GSNR) is initiating a project aimed at enhancing the resilience of California’s forestlands by acquiring and processing surplus biomass into pelletized fuel. GSNR is optimistic that this fuel source will play a role in advancing renewable energy generation overseas as an alternative to coal. The project entails establishing two processing facilities—one in Tuolumne County, and another in Lassen County on the Modoc Plateau in Northern California. Upon completion, the pellets will be transported via rail or truck to the Port of Stockton for international shipment to countries such as Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, where they will be used in power plants. However, GSNR’s proposed wood pellet project has generated substantial controversy and apprehension, with many questioning the project’s true intentions. And the project could have direct impacts on the Truckee/Tahoe region. 

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New Sicamous bio-heat facility generates over $24K in 3 months

By Heather Black
Vernon Morning Star
February 28, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

Sicamous’ new bio-heat facility that provides alternative energy to the industrial park is already turning a profit after just three months in operation. Reporting to the district’s Select Finance Committee on Feb. 28, chief financial officer Bianca Colonna said two connections currently using the system generated $24,364 in revenue. Based on the 2023 numbers, she also provided a budget for the first three months of 2024, taking the initial learning curve for users into account. Colonna estimated revenue for the six months of operation this year at $38,250. With 2023 expenses at $15,689, that left a net revenue of $8,675 that was transferred to reserve. For the 2024 budget, Colonna anticipates $25,888 in costs and $12,362 going into reserve. …The biggest cost is the wood chips at $12,326. The district currently pays a flat rate of $120 per tonne, and Colonna expects that rate to remain pretty consistent going forward, but has projected an annual two per cent increase on costs.

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Wood Pellet Mills in California: A Blessing or a Boondoggle?

By John Johnson
The Capital & Main
February 23, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US West

The state’s forests are much too dense and wildly overgrown. …Rural county officials see an additional reason to cut trees and clear forests: bringing back jobs lost in the long decline of logging. The accumulated biomass can be ground into pellets and sold for fuel in Japan and Europe. …Advocates contend the industry will be climate friendly and carbon neutral, but opponents say pellet plants already operating in the southeastern United States are neither. The U.S., they say, is paying the price of green energy in Europe. …Enviva claims it uses only treetops and branches in its plants, the kind of material the California plants also plan to use. But a whistleblower called that a joke. “We use 100% whole trees,” he said. The rural representatives in California claim their operation will be nothing like Enviva’s. “Our mission is to increase forest health,” said Blacklock.

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State rejects Consumers Energy plan to replace biomass power with solar

By Andy Balaskovitz
Crain’s Grand Rapids Business
March 15, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

State energy regulators have rejected Consumers Energy’s request to exit contracts in the coming months that would have resulted in the closure of two wood-fired biomass plants in Cadillac and the northeastern Lower Peninsula. The Michigan Public Service Commission in two separate cases rejected Consumers’ request to cancel contracts by the end of May involving power purchases from third-party owned biomass plants in Cadillac and in Lincoln in Alcona County. The plants were set to close by the end of May, as Crain’s Grand Rapids Business previously reported. The current contracts are set to expire in 2027 and 2028. …However, advocates for the biomass and timber industries have long argued that Michigan’s six biomass power plants play a key role in providing baseload power as well as a market for forest products that are otherwise left behind during the timber process.

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Stakeholders call for more details on Maine’s latest Extended Producer Responsibility rules draft

By Megan Quinn
Waste Dive
March 11, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

Maine’s EPR program is the first of its kind in the U.S., meaning numerous recycling and waste stakeholders are monitoring details of the program’s rollout. The latest public comment round follows a previous public comment period in October, where stakeholders reviewed a more preliminary, conceptual draft that was then revised and presented to the Board of Environmental Protection in December to kick off the formal rulemaking process. DEP expects the board to adopt the final “routine and technical” rules of the EPR program by this summer. …The draft also calls for producers to use more reusable packaging and gradually add more postconsumer recycled content. In many cases, producers will be hit with heavy fines for not complying. …Groups like the American Forest and Paper Association said Maine’s state needs assessment guidance “is still very sparse” and needs more details on the types of data the stewardship organizations should be collecting. 

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Weyerhaeuser and Lapis Energy announce carbon sequestration exploration agreement

Weyerhaeuser Company
February 27, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: United States, US East

SEATTLE — Weyerhaeuser and Lapis Energy announced the execution of an exclusive exploration agreement for subsurface carbon dioxide sequestration in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The agreement covers 187,500 acres of subsurface rights owned by Weyerhaeuser and spans five potential sequestration sites, including two locations that were previously identified by Weyerhaeuser as prospective opportunities for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) development. Under the exclusive two-year agreement, Lapis will determine the sequestration potential of each site. Upon successful completion of the technical and commercial assessments, Lapis will have the option to move sites into full-scale development agreements and complete the work required to permit, build and operate permanent CO2 sequestration sites serving large-scale industrial sources. …Lapis, located in Dallas and founded in 2020 by a team of industry-leading experts, is building a world-class portfolio of CCS projects within North America

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Climate cooling benefits of planting trees may be overestimated

By Moriah McDonald
Inside Climate News
March 13, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Most climate-concerned people know that trees can help slow global warming by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but a recent study published in the journal Science shows the climate cooling benefits of planting trees may be overestimated. “Our study showed that there is a strong cooling from the trees. But that cooling might not be as strong as we would have thought,” Maria Val Martin, a researcher at the University of Sheffield in the U.K., said. Darker forests can warm the Earth because they reduce the albedo of the land they cover, meaning they absorb more sunlight and reflect less solar radiation back into space. So more heat is held by the Earth’s surface. In addition, trees… also release organic compounds decreases the destruction of methane and increases the concentrations of the greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, said James Weber, the lead study author.

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Wood industry has huge potential to increase revenue from selling carbon credits

Vietnam News
March 10, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

HCM CITY — Việt Nam has 14 million hectares of forests, which, if well-managed, offer opportunities for the country to capitalise on the carbon credit market, a dialogue heard in HCM City. Speaking at the Green Finance for Wood and Furniture Industry dialogue on the sidelines of HawaExpo being held in HCM City from March 6 to 9, Phùng Quốc Mẫn, deputy chairman of the Handicraft and Wood Industry Association of HCM City, said: “In the event that many countries around the world, including Việt Nam, are making efforts to achieve the Net Zero goal, meaning reducing carbon emissions has become a requirement for manufacturing industries.” The Government has a series of specific action programmes, including a roadmap to develop the carbon credit market until 2028, he said. …the wood industry sees reducing emissions as an opportunity since it possesses large planted forests where carbon credits are created, he said.

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Opinion: I’m a climate scientist. If you knew what I know, you’d be terrified too

By Bill McGuire, professor emeritus, University College London
CNN
March 7, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Are you frightened by climate change? …In the words of science writer and author David Wallace-Wells, “No matter how well informed you are, you are surely not alarmed enough.” …If the fracturing of our once stable climate doesn’t terrify you, then you don’t fully understand it. The reality is that, as far as we know, and in the natural course of events, our world has never — in its entire history — heated up as rapidly as it is doing now. Nor have greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere ever seen such a precipitous hike. …What’s happening to our world scares the hell out of me, but if I shout the brutal, unvarnished truth from the rooftops, will this really galvanize you and others into fighting for the planet and your children’s futures? Or will it leave you frozen like a rabbit in headlights, convinced that all is lost? It is an absolutely critical question.

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Drax Left in Limbo As It Awaits UK Subsidy Decision on Biomass

By Eamon Akil Farhat
BNN Bloomberg – Investing
February 29, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

UK electricity generator Drax Group soared in trading after earnings beat analyst expectations, although questions remain around the outcome of a government consultation on continued biomass subsidies. The utility posted £1.2 billion in adjusted earnings… even as the high prices from Europe’s energy crisis eased. …Drax is seeking subsidies beyond 2027 to tide it over until its carbon capture project can start in 2030. The government consultation closes at the end of February with a decision expected in April. …A bridge subsidy “could provide multi-year certainty allowing Drax to secure long-term biomass supplies and continue to support energy security via flexible and reliable renewable biomass operations in advance of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage,” the company said. …Meanwhile, concerns over the carbon-neutral credentials of biomass were in focus again this week after a BBC report that said Drax sourced some of its fuel by cutting down primary forest.

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Climate change experts have ‘serious concerns’ at tree planting cut

By Kevin Keane
BBC News
February 28, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

The Scottish government’s climate change advisers have raised “serious concerns” about cuts to tree planting. It was announced in December that the woodland creation budget was being slashed by 41% from £77.2m to £45.4m. Ministers have admitted the cut means they will fall well short of next year’s target of 18,000 hectares of new woodland to tackle climate change. The Scottish government has blamed the decision on cuts to the block grant from Westminster. The forestry sector said the decision will mean millions of small trees which have been growing in nurseries ready for planting will have to be destroyed. …Climate Change Committee chief executive Chris Stark said any delay in tree planting would risk not achieving the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions which are required to meet targets in the 2030s and beyond. …Stuart Goodall, chief executive of Confor, said the industry will take many years to regain the confidence to invest.

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Delays to building new UK power generation creates energy security ‘crunch point’ in 2028

Drax Group Inc.
February 27, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

New independent analysis by Public First, ‘Mind the gap: Exploring Britain’s energy crunch’, commissioned by Drax Group (Drax), reveals that the UK will hit an energy security “crunch point” in 2028. Public First’s research finds that in 2028 a perfect storm of an increase in demand, the retirement of existing assets, and delays to the delivery of Hinkley Point C will culminate in demand exceeding secure dispatchable and baseload capacity by 7.5GW at peak times. This shortfall is more than three times the secure de-rated power that Sizewell C will be capable of providing to the system when completed – 2.5GW – and nearly double the gap in 2022 (4GW). Uncertainty for biomass generators, which contribute over 3GW of secure dispatchable power, risks compounding the shortfall by nearly 50%.

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Relying on pine forests to hit net-zero would place ‘increasing obligation’ on future generations

By Tom Pullar-Strecker
The Post New Zealand
February 26, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

Rod Carr

The Government would be imposing a big obligation on future generations if it relied heavily on pine forests to meet the country’s 2050 “net zero” carbon goal, MPs have been told. Climate Change Commission chairperson Rod Carr told Parliament’s Environment select committee “we think trees are great”. But he said the commission was concerned about what might happen after 2050 if the country had achieved “net zero” by planting a large number of pine trees that might be unsustainable. “If they are a mono-age, mono-culture of planting, particularly on erosion-prone land, maintaining that forest cover in the face of disease, age, storm, fire is going to be an increasing obligation on future generations.” Up to 2 million hectares of farmland could be converted to pine forests under existing incentives, which placed no cap on the use of forestry to achieve net emissions targets, he said.

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EU legislature backs a major plan to better protect nature and meet climate goals

By Raf Casert
The Associated Press
February 27, 2024
Category: Carbon, Climate & Bioenergy
Region: International

STRASBOURG, France — The European Union’s legislature on Tuesday approved a watered-down plan to better protect nature and fight climate change in the 27-nation bloc, despite opposition from the biggest party in parliament and fierce protests from the farming community. The plan is a key part of the EU’s vaunted European Green Deal that seeks to establish the world’s most ambitious climate and biodiversity targets and make the bloc the global point of reference on all climate issues. Yet the Nature Restoration plan has had an extremely rough ride through the EU’s complicated approval process and only a watered down version will now proceed to a final vote among the EU member states, where it is expected to pass easily. …Under the plan, member states would have to meet restoration targets for specific habitats and species, with the aim of covering at least 20% of the region’s land and sea areas by 2030.

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