Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of biofuels, including the burning of wood pellets in the UK, on the loss of biodiversity and deforestation overseas.
The UK only supports biomass which complies with strict sustainability criteria. This considers a range of environmental issues including protecting the biodiversity of forests from which the biomass is sourced, irrespective of its location.
Where biomass is sourced from forests, it is typically waste wood and residues from commercial forestry operations that already occur, and it is a requirement that the relevant legal requirements to protect biodiversity and the environment are adhered to. The evidence does not show that deforestation or biodiversity loss have occurred in the areas from where UK electricity generators source their biomass.