Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 3 December (HL Deb col 1089), what is the evidence that sustainably sourced biomass can provide a low-carbon and renewable energy source; whether that evidence has been produced by an independent organisation that does not have financial links to the biomass industry; and whether they will publish it.

Global institutions such as the IPCC, and the UK’s CCC recognise that bioenergy and BECCS can play a significant role in decarbonising economies and meeting net zero provided that appropriate policies are put in place to mitigate the use of unsustainable biomass.

The Government only supports the use of sustainable biomass and generators only receive subsidies for biomass that meets our sustainability criteria. We also plan to consult later this year on the development of a common sustainability framework which aims to enable greater consistency across sectors and to strengthen criteria in line with latest evidence.