Nov 12 Press Conference: True climate action must reject forest bioenergy

Belém, Brazil – At COP30, countries risk locking in increased forest destruction and carbon emissions under the guise of bioenergy. There is growing global evidence showing the dangers of sourced biomass from forests, climate and communities: from new investigative research by Stand.earth revealing UK energy company Drax sourcing old growth trees in Canada to supply its pellet plants; to co-firing wood with coal in Indonesian power plants and counting it towards renewable goals. Civil society representatives will discuss the damage caused by the big bioenergy industry and highlight new research and scientific evidence demonstrating that burning forest biomass at utility-scale takes us backwards on climate action.

WHEN: Wednesday, November 12, 2025 at 3:30pm BST (UTC-3)

WHERE: Press Conference Room 2 in Area D at COP30

WHO:

• Tegan Hansen, Senior Forest Campaigner, Stand.earth (Canada)
• Timer Manurung, Chair, Auriga Nusantara (Indonesia)
• Davi Martins, International Advocacy Campaigner, Biomass Action Network (international/Brazil)
• Sayoko Iinuma, Researcher, Global Environmental Forum (Japan)
• Ruairi Brogan, Senior Policy Officer – BECCS and Bioenergy, RSPB (UK)

WHY: Harvesting and burning woody biomass decimates forest ecosystems and, because of its inefficiency, burning wood pellets in power plants releases as much or more carbon emissions per unit of energy than burning coal. Yet the industry is rapidly expanding under the label of the ‘bioeconomy’, echoed ahead of COP30 in the Belém 4X Pledge on Sustainable Fuels. COP30 delegates must pay heed to the evidence, reject forest bioenergy and ensure that NDCs and subsidy regimes explicitly prohibit forest biomass.

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 Notes to the editor:

To view full details of the investigation into Drax’s activities in British Columbia, Canada see: Truckloads of Trees. 

Solutions for Our Climate’s short documentary shows how biomass fuel trade is destroying Indonesia’s rainforests. 

For more information on global biomass energy development, find it in the Biomass Action Network’s report.

Further information and expert analysis on biomass energy can be found on Stand.earth’s forest biomass pages.

Media contacts:

In Belém, Tegan Hansen, Senior Forest Campaigner, Stand.earth – 

tegan@stand.earth 

In Toronto, Kathryn Semogas, Communications Specialist, Stand.earth – kathryn.semogas@stand.earth