JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – South Korea’s government will cut subsidies for growing biomass energy domestically and internationally. Criticism of its link to deforestation. Environmental activists generally praised the reforms but criticized loopholes and a slow timeline for phasing out subsidies.
“Although not without caveats, the South Korean government’s decision shows that large-scale biomass power is not a viable option in the renewable energy future,” said Hanse Song, program lead at Solutions for Our Climate, a South Korea-based non-governmental organization. There is no place.” In an email to The Associated Press.
Biomass power, produced mainly by burning wood, is growing globally as countries accelerate their transition to cleaner energy use – although many scientists and environmentalists see it as problematic. Let’s see. In South Korea, it is the second largest source of renewable energy.
Logs sit on the back of a truck parked on the side of a road leading to the area of ​​several wood pellet companies in Pohuwato, Gorontalo Province, Indonesia, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Yagar Sahaduta Mangiri)
South Korea has subsidized biomass energy with millions of dollars for more than a decade through its renewable energy certificates program. According to a press release from South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the government recently gave about $688 million to support power plants using biomass.
Faced with limited domestic forest resources, South Korea’s biomass power industry has built its business model around importing large quantities of wood pellets at low prices from forest-rich countries. In 2023, imports accounted for 82% of the country’s wood pellet demand, making South Korea the world’s third largest importer of biomass fuel after the UK and Japan. AP reports Biomass imported from Indonesia was found to be associated with deforestation of natural, intact forests.
As the (biomass) market expanded, various issues emerged, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said. Their press release. “Criticisms persist regarding forest degradation and carbon emissions associated with biomass power generation.”
Under the revised policy, South Korea will not support any new biomass power plants. Subsidies for six state-owned plants that combine coal and biomass will end this year, while the value of renewable energy certificates for three state-owned biomass plants will be phased out until 2027. On privately owned plants, the subsidy will be phased out over the next decade for biomass extracted from six plants, while the subsidy weight will be reduced for 12 periods. Biomass plants in the next 15 years.
But environmental activists are criticizing the flaws in the new policy.
A machine runs near a road leading to an area of ​​wood pellet companies in Puhuatu, Gorontalo Province, Indonesia, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Yagar Sahaduta Mangiri)
Domestically produced wood pellets and chips will still receive the same support as before, including those co-fired with coal – which experts say could pose a threat to South Korea’s forests. Power plants under construction or in planning with approved business permits are exempt from the new policy and are subject to phase-down timelines for existing facilities.
State-owned co-firing facilities – which will lose their renewable energy certificates – currently account for only 10% of South Korea’s biomass power fleet, while most private co-firing is in the process of being phased out. It will take more than a decade. Policy, Solutions for Our Climate said.
“This extends the life of thermal power plants — with higher emissions per unit of energy than many coal — beyond the coal phase-out deadline tied to the Paris Agreement,” Song said in an email to the AP. wrote
South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the Korea Forest Service and the Ministry of the Environment did not respond to AP requests for comment.
South Korea’s policy shift could signal a shift in how countries perceive and include biomass as part of their energy transition, experts said.
“There has been a positive shift in the discourse around biomass subsidies,” said Claire Squire, research associate at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy’s Center for Global Sustainability. “Reducing subsidies won’t necessarily fix everything, but potentially if they’re structured differently than in the past, that could be an improvement.”
As countries accelerate their energy transitions, demand for biomass is increasing. The use of bioenergy has increased. About 3 percent annually between 2010 and 2022, the International Energy Agency said.
Experts, including the IEA, say this demand must be met in a sustainable way, such as using waste and crop residues instead of converting forest land to grow bioenergy crops. Deforestation contributes to erosion, damages biodiverse areas, threatens wildlife and humans who depend on forests and Accelerates disasters from extreme weather..
Many scientists And environmentalists have rejected the use of biomass altogether. Burning wood-based biomass can release more carbon than coal, they say, and cutting down trees greatly reduces the ability of forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Critics also argue that using biomass to fire coal prolongs the use of coal, rather than moving directly into clean energy.
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