The European Bioenergy Day campaign aims to visualize and raise awareness on where the EU stands in the development of renewable energy and, in particular bioenergy. The campaign explains:
“To better understand, let’s take the calendar year and break it down according to European energy consumption statistics: In 2017, Europe will rely on fossil and nuclear energy from January 1st to October 26th, representing 299 days in total.
It is from October 27th onwards that Europe is fueled by renewables, meaning 66 days in total! Bioenergy alone contributes 41 days of this total, which means that from November 21st until December 31st, Europe can theoretically rely on bioenergy to be fueled.
The European Bioenergy Day marks the symbolic date from which the EU-28 can solely rely on bioenergy to be fueled. The positive news is that this date has improved every year for the past decade, at both EU and national levels!”
To further raise the awareness of the positive impact of bioenergy across Europe, one bioenergy story for each of the 41 days of the campaign is announced.
CEPF contributed to the campaign with a story from the region Allgäu in southern Germany. The story shows the importance of bioenergy, not only for climate change mitigation, but also for supporting sustainable forest management.
A new woodchip plant in the region created demand for low-quality wood that was previously not used. This enabled the forest owners to remove forest residues, leading to successful natural regeneration of the forest and reducing the threat of bark beetle attacks. Furthermore, increased investments into the forests prompted more climate-resilient mixed forests.
Read the full story here.