Sustainable Biomass
Sustainable biomass uses cellulosic waste products such as wood scraps, agricultural residues, and organic landfill materials for combustion in a thermoelectric generator to produce electricity while ensuring that harvested trees are not used as a fuel source to maintain forest sustainability. Bioenergy is a dispatchable renewable energy source that can complement variable renewable energy sources.
Paper Tiger: Why the EU’s RED II biomass sustainability criteria fail forests and the climate
A report by the Partnership for Policy Integrity (PFPI) provides a scientific and legal analysis of why “sustainability” protections in the EU’s recast Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) provide cover for continued logging, GHG emissions, and forest damage from biomass harvesting.
Achieving the Paris Climate Agreement Goals Part 2: Science-based Target Setting for the Finance industry—Net-Zero Sectoral 1.5˚C Pathways for Real Economy Sectors
The One Earth Climate Model (OECM) began as a research project supported by One Earth between the University of Technology Sydney, the German Aerospace Centre, and the University of Melbourne in 2017. They were tasked with developing a detailed 1.5˚C GHG trajectory for ten world regions without the continued use of fossil fuels or unproven technologies like carbon capture and storage. The results of the first model made it clear that it is still possible to limit warming to 1.5˚C with a rapid transition to 100% renewable energy sources. However, the model did not yet have the granularity the financial sector needed to guide and benchmark net-zero investments. The book, Achieving the Paris Climate Agreement Goals Part 2: Science-based Target Setting for the Finance Industry — Net-Zero Sectoral 1.5˚C Pathways for Real Economy Sectors, is designed as a continuation of this group’s 2019 first edition, which focused on country-specific energy pathways. Decarbonization pathways have been developed for countries, regions, and communities, but never before for industry sectors in a detailed way. While the book consists of 400 pages of dense methodologies and calculations, its topline message is clear; in the words of the lead author Sven Teske, “ We can limit global warming to 1.5˚C with the technology pathways we describe... I would call it an action plan to save the future for our children and their children."