Bucharest, 24 September 2026 – Agent Green, alongside an international coalition of 44 non-governmental organisations, publishes the position paper “Why the EU must stop subsidies for burning trees: a policy mistake that needs to be corrected”. The full 20-page document is available in English.
According to the paper, targets and incentives for burning wood in the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) and the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS):
- worsen the climate crisis – burning woody biomass releases more CO₂ than coal, yet its emissions continue to be treated as zero in the EU ETS;
- harm the economy and energy security – nearly half the wood harvested in the EU is burned for energy, driving up wood prices for industry and households;
- accelerate biodiversity loss and forest destruction – subsidies reward the felling of any tree, including those that previously had no commercial value;
- worsen air pollution – in cities, mountain regions and rural areas.
The coalition calls for these incentives to be removed in the post-2030 European climate and energy package by:
- excluding woody biomass from the list of renewable energy sources in RED;
- ending the zero-rating of woody biomass emissions in the EU ETS and accounting for actual emissions.
The public funds saved could be directed towards energy savings (especially building insulation), energy storage and grid upgrades, forest ecosystem restoration and continuous-cover forestry instead of clear-cutting.
Read also the Agent Green press release (in Romanian) about the document being sent to Europe’s environment ministers and to Romania’s Minister of Environment, Water and Forests, Diana Buzoianu.
