Join the International Day of Action on Forest Biomass Energy, 24 November

The focus of today’s International Action is a petition that you must click and sign before you continue reading. We’ll wait.

Like the focus of the newly gone-live Forest Defenders Alliance campaign, the focus of the petition you’ve just signed (it’s here if you haven’t, go on) is to command the attention of EU leadership to grave errors in regulation that have unleashed a hungry biomass industry, subsidized and disguised as a clean path to meeting renewable energy targets, on the forests of the world.

The error in carbon accounting that has led to this situation has been demonstrated clearly. Burning biomass emits more CO2 per unit energy than coal. Yet other jurisdictions are preparing to follow Europe’s energy model, to rush into a global escalation of this false and damaging climate solution.

As of this writing, the petition is just shy of 7,500 in progress to a goal of 10,000 signatures. On this International Day of Action on Forest Biomass Energy, forest defenders the world around will ask you to sign, then to tell your friends and loved ones to sign, and then to tell their friends to sign. This virtuous hectoring will produce a wave of mass forest activism sustained around the world, starting in the Pacific, routing through Australia, Asia, Africa, and Europe to the Americas. 

The petition calls for an end to subsidies and incentives for burning forest wood, for it to be excluded from renewable energy targets, and for the protection and restoration of forests to be prioritized for our health, the climate and biodiversity.

The target is the European Union and its member countries but this message must come from everywhere because Europe’s unacceptable large-scale biomass burning and poor leadership has damaged the lives and livelihood of people and forests everywhere.

By signing and encouraging others to sign you will join many people who care deeply in calling for change.

#forestsarenotfuel