Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his policies of the IPCC data which shows that the carbon emissions from burning wood are 1.18 times higher than those for burning coal; and what the corresponding change in gross stack emissions has been at Drax per MWh as a result of its switch to wood from coal.

The UK reports and accounts for biomass use in accordance with internationally agreed rules, follow the guidance from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This guidance avoids double counting of emissions in both the forest and energy sectors. The loss of carbon stock from harvesting operations in the forestry sector are reported in the Land Use, Land Use Change, and Forestry sector of the country of harvest and may lead to an increase in the carbon stock of other carbon pools such as deadwood, litter, soil and harvested wood products. The portion of forestry products that is used for energy is assumed to be instantaneously oxidised in the country in which harvesting happens.

For transparency, the UK reports internationally the emissions of carbon dioxide from bioenergy use as a memo item, outside of national totals, in accordance with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change requirements. It also reports the emissions of nitrous oxide and methane from biomass combustion as part of the national total of GHG emissions. OFGEM also publishes data on company-specific supply chain emissions from biomass, which can be found here: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/biomass-sustainability-dataset-2019-20