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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the extent of energy production in the UK through burning wood pellets; the supply chain carbon cost of this approach; and the difference in supply chain carbon costs between wood pellets and coal.

The use of sustainable biomass for power generation has been shown to have significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels. Statistics on energy generation from renewable sources including biomass is publicly available on the GOV.UK website. In 2020, around 9% of total electricity generated in the UK was from plant biomass, the majority of which is wood pellets.

Supply chain greenhouse gas emissions data reported as part of compliance with the UK’s stringent sustainability criteria under existing renewable energy schemes are available on Ofgem's website.