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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department takes to ensure decisions taken on biomass are evidence-based.

In the Government’s response to Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) latest annual progress report to Parliament, we announced that we will publish a new Biomass Strategy in 2022. This will review what amount of sustainable biomass could be available to the UK, and how this resource could be best utilised across the economy to help achieve our net zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050.

The Strategy will also assess the UK’s current biomass sustainability standards, which are some of the most stringent in the world, to see where and how we can improve them even further.

As part of the strategy development, we will be launching a “Call for Evidence” on the role of biomass to help achieve Net Zero, enabling interested stakeholders to contribute their views on biomass. The final strategy will be based on evidence gathered during the call for evidence and other sources. Other decisions on biomass are also evidence based, drawing on a variety of sources and analysis which is rigorously quality assured as part of our policy making process.