While European Union countries like the United Kingdom continue to burn forest biomass—primarily in the form of imported wood pellets—to produce electricity, analysis conducted in 2017 shows it’s a bad bet financially and for the environment, underscoring the dangers of...

The urgency of the climate crisis is inspiring some extreme and unproven ideas. Arguably one of the most reckless ideas is already well underway: burning “forest biomass”—that is, trees—in power plants as a replacement for coal. The problem with this so-called green energy source is that instead of decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, it increases the amount of CO2 coming out of the smokestack compared to fossil fuels, and the climate “benefit” is claimed by simply not counting the emissions.

We share a vision of a world in which thriving natural forests play a significant role in tackling climate change and contribute to a clean, healthy, just and sustainable future for all life on earth. Burning forest wood for large-scale energy production cannot be part of that future for all of the reasons outlined below. Instead we must protect and restore natural forests, thereby reducing emissions and removing atmospheric carbon dioxide while supporting biodiversity, resilience and well-being.

Wood pellets are the latest threat to Southern forests. Also known as bioenergy and biomass, many countries burn wood pellets for electricity. Wood pellets are not a renewable energy solution.

The largest source of "clean" energy is not reducing carb...