What a surprise: If you subsidize something, you get more of it. In the EU, there are financial incentives for generating energy from renewable sources. Trees are a renewable resource, true enough, but I doubt that the Eurocrats intended to subsidize the massive destruction of forests.
Protected forests are being indiscriminately felled across Europe to meet the EU's renewable energy targets, according to an investigation by the conservation group Birdlife.
Up to 65% of Europe's renewable output currently comes from bioenergy, involving fuels such as wood pellets and chips, rather than wind and solar power.
Bioenergy fuel is supposed to be harvested from residue such as forest waste but, under current legislation, European bioenergy plants do not have to produce evidence that their wood products have been sustainably sourced.
Birdlife found logging taking place in conservation zones such as Poloniny national park in eastern Slovakia and in Italian riverside forests around Emilia-Romagna, where it said it had been falsely presented as flood-risk mitigation.
[...] Jori Sihvonen, the biofuels officer at Transport and Environment, which co-authored the report, said: "It is easy to fall into thinking that all bioenergy is sustainable, but time and again we see some forms of it can be worse for society, the natural environment and, in the case of burning land-based biofuels or whole trees, even the climate.
(Score: 3, Funny) by nethead on Friday December 02 2016, @08:15PM
Is the Earth-Luna system falling into to the sun before or after it goes out? I just want to know what to pack.
How did my SN UID end up over 3 times my /. UID?
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday December 02 2016, @08:21PM
Sunscreen and water.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 02 2016, @11:01PM
Who cares? As long as the Earth-Moon system is fine, then we're good to go.
(Score: 2) by RedGreen on Saturday December 03 2016, @04:22AM
"I just want to know what to pack."
All you need to know is do not forget your towel.
"I modded down, down, down, and the flames went higher." -- Sven Olsen