EU bioenergy policy | WWF

EU bioenergy policy


What’s more, scientists agree that burning tree trunks/stumps will increase emissions for decades compared to fossil fuels – one reason for this is how long it takes for forests to grow back.


The EU recently agreed new bioenergy rules as part of its revised Renewables Energy Directive. Unfortunately these will allow ever more trees and crops to be burnt for energy, increasing greenhouse gas emissions even more than fossil fuels would do.

We need much stricter rules to ensure that bioenergy used in the EU delivers genuine climate benefits and that companies instead invest in low carbon renewables such as wind and solar.


What is WWF doing?

The EU should also set strict efficiency requirements – and apply these and the other sustainability criteria to all biomass plant over 1MW in size. 


Our bioenergy team

Alex Mason
Senior Policy Officer, Renewable Energy
+32 494 76 27 63

Sarah Azau
Senior Communications & Media Officer
+32 473 57 31 37


  • Bioenergy’ refers to biofuels, biogas and solid biomass.

    Biofuels are liquid fuels such as bioethanol or biodiesel, which are currently mostly made from food crops such as palm oil, oilseeds or cereals.

    Biogas is gas (mostly methane) produced from the anaerobic digestion of various material, including municipal and agricultural wastes and other plant material or crops. Solid biomass is typically wood, in the form of logs, wood chips or pellets.