Ecology, Energy, Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation
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Monday, 29.05.2023, 01:54
Environmental organizations file lawsuit in EU court against renewable energy directive

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The plaintiffs are from Estonia, France, Ireland, Romania,
Slovakia and the United States, Estonian pro-forest environmental NGO Eesti Metsa Abiks (EMA) said. The
plaintiffs are bringing the case based on the harms from logging and
biomass burning they have already suffered, and anticipation of future impacts
as financial support for bioenergy continues to soar.
EMA also participated in the preparation of the case as a
local coordinator and adviser. In the court case, Estonia is represented by
recognized poet, translator and essayist Hasso
Krull, whose complaint focuses on the role of the Renewable Energy
Directive in destroying the Estonian cultural heritage.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to annul the forest
biomass provisions of the RED II in order to render forest wood ineligible for
meeting EU member state renewable energy targets and subsidies.
The legal case cites scientific evidence that
wood-burning power plants pump more carbon into the atmosphere per unit of
energy than coal plants. "The EU's policy relies on the false and reckless
assumption that burning forest wood is carbon neutral," Dr. Mary S. Booth, director of the US-based
Partnership for Policy Integrity (PFPI) and lead science adviser on the case,
said.
According to the environmental activists, biomass
energy is a large and growing part of EU's renewable energy mix
and subsidies for biomass are increasing demand and driving increased
logging of forests in Europe and North America.
The court case also focuses on the world's second largest
wood chip manufacturer Graanul Invest,
which owns pellet plants across the Baltics. According to the Estonian
plaintiff, Graanul Invest initiated a
process for removing the map layer of sacred places from national databases,
thus expressing the clear wish to continue the unpunished cutting of sacred
places that have not yet been inventoried.
Almost half of the timber harvested in Estonia is burnt in
Estonia or abroad, and according to the proposal for the development of the
Forestry Development Plan 2030, the wish is to maintain the current volume of
bioenergy production.
The environmental organizations said that the steering group
for the drawing up of the Forestry Development Plan is significantly out of
balance as Graanul Invest CEO Raul Kirjanen has been assigned to
the steering group as a representative of the Estonian Renewable Energy
Association, while EMA was left out of the steering group despite the inclusion
wish submitted by both the civic association and the Council of
Environmental NGOs (EKO).