Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the guidelines of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stating that they “do not automatically consider or assume biomass used for energy as ‘carbon neutral’, even in cases where the biomass is thought to be produced sustainably”.

This IPCC reference relates to guidelines on reporting biomass as ‘zero’ emissions at the point of combustion. Under the IPCC Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reporting framework, removals and emissions associated with growing bioenergy crops, land-use change, fertilization, transportation, etc are recorded against the relevant sectors.

As with any energy source, biomass is not carbon neutral when considering the full supply chain, but it can be low carbon. The UK only considers biomass to be low carbon if it meets sustainability criteria, which includes requirements around sustainable harvesting and maintaining forest productivity, as well as a GHG criteria to minimise supply chain emissions. We plan to consult later this year on the development of a common sustainability framework which aims to enable greater consistency across different biomass end use sectors and to strengthen criteria in line with latest evidence.