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It exacerbates climate change, threatens forests and the communities that depend on them, and doesn’t compete with solar and wind.
For years, scientists have warned that burning trees to produce electricity worsens climate change, in the same way as coal and other fossil fuels. Cutting older trees reduces a forest’s overall carbon storage capacity. And per unit of energy, biomass-burning plants emit more CO2 from their smokestacks than coal.
It takes decades for tree-burning power plants to deliver any climate benefits, and only if re-planted forests fully regrow. This timescale is incompatible with the urgent need to address the climate crisis and diverts much-needed investment from real clean energy solutions.