Wood-fired power will actually increase emissions over timescales relevant to the Paris Agreement

Biomass was central to the pioneering Indian environmentalist Anil Agarwal’s thesis on the differing environmental challenges in rich and poor countries. Much of the Third World’s resources were employed to produce biomass for consumption in the West.

But for their own consumption (however low), the poor were more dependent on biomass than the rich, living in what he called a “biomass-based subsistence economy”. Even as the West largely shifted to fossil fuels, biomass still accounted for most of the energy consumption of the poor in developing countries.

But that has long been changing. Designed to meet climate targets, the European Commission’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED, 2009) has fueled a boom in the production of biomass for energy use. This includes liquid biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel (blended in traditional fuels), biogas and well as solid biomass such as wood pellets which is burnt for heat and power production.