To: Kristy McBain MP

Member for Eden-Monaro

 

 

PLEASE HELP US STOP BURNING OF NATIVE FOREST WOOD AS RENEWABLE ENERGY

 

As representatives of climate and environment groups in Eden-Monaro, we are asking for your support to remove native forest wood from eligibility as a renewable energy sources.

This is urgent – ending native forest logging is the quickest, cheapest and easiest way to make a worthwhile reduction in Australia’s carbon emissions and we don’t have time to spare.

The Albanese Government will soon decide whether electricity generated by burning wood from native forests should be removed as eligible for Large-scale Generation Certificates (LGCs) under the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000, and any other relevant instruments.

• By storing and drawing down huge volumes of carbon, forests can be vital allies in our efforts to avert catastrophic climate change. Logging native forests and releasing their carbon into the atmosphere is a major cause of climate change. 
• A native forest biomass industry, supported by renewable energy certificates, would create perverse incentives to log vast areas of forests under the guise of climate action. 
• There is nothing climate friendly about burning native forest wood. In fact, biomass from native forests emits more greenhouse gas than coal per unit of energy generated. 
• In 2015, Mr Albanese said in Parliament: ‘Native wood waste is neither clean nor renewable. [The Abbott government]…makes it sound like it would just be the little offcuts which would be burnt, but the fact is that nothing is further from the truth.’ 
• We need the Prime Minister to act on this now and reinstate the Gillard-era ban on burning native forests and claiming renewable energy certificates. 
• Native forest biomass threatens to become the new woodchipping in Australia – masquerading as using the waste and becoming the major driver of logging. 

Australia is in a biodiversity and extinction crisis. We need real action, not just words for protecting habitat and wildlife. Protecting native forests protects habitat, wildlife and biodiversity. A biomass industry threatens all this and cannot be allowed to develop. 

 

South East Region Conservation Alliance, National Parks Association, South East Forest Rescue, Chipstop Campaign against Woodchipping, Gulaga (Mt Dromedary) Protection Group.

21 October 2022