COP30 bioenergy smokescreen jeopardizes forests and real climate action

BELÉM, Brazil – Country delegations have an urgent responsibility to halt the expansion of forest bioenergy, warned climate and forest experts at COP30 today. Forest bioenergy is highly polluting, and despite reassurances from Brazil, will likely play a critical role in the expansion set out in the Belém 4X Pledge on Sustainable Fuels. 

Experts at the United Nations summit on climate change highlighted a large and growing body of scientific research and on-the-ground accounts from around the world, which clearly show the harmful climate, biodiversity and community impacts of forest bioenergy. Including:

• New investigative research from Stand.earth published this week reveals that coal-turned-biomass giant Drax purchased logged trees from at-risk old growth forests in British Columbia, Canada in 2024 and likely 2025 to supply its pellet plants. Canada is the third largest exporter of wood pellets globally, largely to Japan, South Korea, and the UK to burn in coal-converted plants. Photos and footage associated with this research are available for media use here.

• Solutions for Our Climate’s short documentary and spatial and policy analyses show how co-firing wood with coal in Indonesian power plants extends the life of the fossil-fuel industry, enabling over 50 power plants now co-firing biomass to be counted as “abating” coal. Biomass co-firing increases emissions and destroys rainforest ecosystems whilst being counted towards renewable energy targets.

• According to the Biomass Action Network’s updated report and threat map Burning up the Biosphere, without urgent action the bioenergy sector is set to rapidly expand – leading to increased emissions, the loss of culturally and ecologically crucial ecosystems, and the exacerbation of pollution-related health impacts for local communities.

Governments and country delegates to COP30 must acknowledge the real emissions associated with burning woody biomass to generate energy, and the damage to ecosystems and communities caused by the international forest bioenergy industry. At this “forests COP” leaders who are committed to real climate action must see through the smokescreen and reject forest bioenergy. Subsidies and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) must exclude forest biomass. Additionally, the Belém pledge to quadruple biofuels by 2035 must not be included or referenced in official COP30 outcomes. In order to succeed in the Presidency’s goal to deliver an “implementation COP,” Parties must deliver on the first Global Stocktake (GST) ambition to halt and reverse forest loss by 2030 – a goal which is entirely incompatible with forest bioenergy.

QUOTES:

Tegan Hansen, Senior Forest Campaigner at Stand.earth: “Some of the last centuries-old forests in Canada have been logged and destroyed to burn to generate electricity in Japan, the UK and South Korea. Is this the kind of renewable energy future that we’re being promised at this COP?”

Sayoko Iinuma, Researcher at the Global Environmental Forum: “If all planned biomass plants in Japan become operational, 1.5 times the amount of currently imported fuel is required. This will contribute to deforestation and forest degradation around the world, as well as human rights violations. Biomass energy is a false solution and should be excluded from subsidies.”

Timer Manurung, Chair of Auriga Nusantara: Indonesia used to face deforestation for palm oil and mining, now we also face the growing threat of deforestation for biomass energy. We are seeing coal operators expanding their business into wood pellet mills in order to rebrand themselves as ‘renewable energy’ companies. 

Davi Martins, International Advocacy Campaigner at the Biomass Action Network: “Logging for bioenergy does the opposite of what science demands. It degrades our best natural defense against climate change. At a time when rights-based protection and ecological restoration are proven to enhance forest health and resilience, we are heading in the wrong direction.”

Ruairi Brogan, Senior Policy Officer for Bioenergy and BECCS at the RSPB: “Countries risk undermining their leadership on forests by continuing to burn trees for large-scale bioenergy. Of the climate plans we have assessed, 58% of countries refer to biomass or bioenergy. Relying on this damaging fuel source will be disastrous for our precious forest ecosystems, our climate and people.”

More information:

• Currently 55% of all renewable energy worldwide is bioenergy, and burning woody biomass – including biomass sourced from forests – for centralized energy generation is the predominant form of bioenergy.

• Biomass burning emits as much or more CO2 than coal at the smokestack per unit of energy generated, according to research by the Joint Research Council to the EU, as well as the Partnership for Policy Integrity.

• Biomass expansion is underpinned by billions in public subsidies meant to support renewable energy. Drax alone receives over a billion dollars per year in UK subsidies, and is also subsidized in Canada. Subsidies and demand from Southeast Asia are driving the loss of tropical forests for biomass energy.

• Biomass plants regularly violate environmental laws, heavily impacting communities with pollution. Drax has been accused of environmental racism in the US, paying millions in fines for pollution from its pellet plants, largely in communities of colour. In 2025, residents of Gloster, Mississippi, sued Drax over its release of toxic pollutants. Drax and affiliates broke environmental rules over 11,000 times in the US and at least 189 times in Canada.

• Forest biomass can violate the rights of Indigenous peoples and local communities. Biomass sourcing is linked to land grabs, as companies are incentivized to replace locally important forests and other ecosystems with biomass plantations. Forests are essential for inherent rights, food sovereignty, and cultural use.

###

Media contacts:

In Belém, Brazil for COP30: Tegan Hansen, Senior Forest Campaigner, Stand.earth (English, French) | tegan@stand.earth
In Toronto, Canada:  Kathryn Semogas, Communications Specialist, Stand.earth (English) | kathryn.semogas@stand.earth