This article is sponsored byEnviva。
To be clear, global industries were not designed to be low carbon; the road to decarbonization and net zero will necessitate more action than just eliminating plastics and encouraging recycling. The climate crisis requires mass collaboration and a radical rethink on how governments, NGOs, societies and global businesses operate.
Why today?
Today, the global economy is not on a trajectory consistent with the Paris Agreement to phase out fossil fuels. According to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), even if the world follows the most stringent emission reduction pathways, we will still exhaust the global carbon budget by 2040.
As seen by the recent surge in peak power prices across Europe, most of the world continues to rely on coal to meet electricity demand. Far from being priced out of the market, the need for dispatchable power is keeping fossil fuels — especially coal — in the game. So why are we using so much coal and fossil fuels? It’s because maintaining baseload, dispatchable power is a challenge. Batteries and other grid-scale storage mechanisms aren’t yet feasible, and the economics remain questionable — and so is managing the intermittency of solar and wind. Batteries and hydrogen offer hope in the medium and long term, but we are only nine years away from the deadline to decrease EU emissions by 55 percent. We simply do not have the time to wait for those solutions to become cost-competitive at scale.
如果我们希望明天希望看到碳中性或碳阴性世界，那么所有政府和公司都必须积极减少今天的碳排放。作为工业家和全球公民，我们必须解决我们这个时代最重要的环境，社会和经济挑战之一 - 找到可再生能源解决方案应对气候威胁this century — but we must act now.
迄今为止，木质生物质 - 低价值木材（顶部，四肢，患病和不适合其他用途的树木）是锯木厂操作或计划中的传统木材收获的副产品 - 是唯一可续签，可伸缩，可靠的，当今可提供的可分配解决方案，可提供功率和热量产生功能。
Sustainable bioenergy already provides low-carbon heat and power to nearly 50 million European households, but its use will have to more than double by 2050 if we wish to meet E.U. climate targets. In addition to increasing sustainable bioenergy use to meet 2030 targets, how bioenergy evolves, how it will be used and how it will be invested in are critical questions to be considered.
生物量的可持续性如何？
这取决于…
这biomass industry is the most highly regulated among the entire forest products sector. For biomass to be recognized as "sustainable" and eligible to receive subsidies, it must be produced and consumed following an overlapping system of international, federal and state-level laws.
我们相信sustainably sourced biomass必须：来自森林碳库存稳定或增加的地区；要求森林在收获后恢复；不使用可能具有另一种高价值的木材；并根据生物多样性和保护价值收获。我们认为，所有木材纤维采购都应根据这些原则来采购，并且应独立验证合规性。
将生物质用作气候变化措施的使用已得到认可，并继续得到联合国政府间气候变化小组（IPCC），国际能源局，英国气候变化委员会，美国农业部，美国能源部，美国能源部，美国能源部，欧盟以及世界上许多其他领先的学术和政府机构。
这基本科学on the carbon and forestry benefits of wood bioenergy, when produced sustainably, is well-established and remains unchanged. It has been attested to by the领先的科学家和学者专门研究该领域的人，并受到越来越多的学术文献的支持，包括发表在2019and2020。生物质可以提供牢固，可调节的基本负荷功率，并且可以提供今天的低碳功率。结果，生物质提供了立即的低碳溶液，并且在考虑全球能量过渡时，生物能必须成为混合物的一部分。
今天必须部署替代能源解决方案。可持续采购的生物质可以使煤炭1：1取代，当风能和太阳能稀缺时保持灯光，并将碳排放量减少85％。
High-quality, wood pellets manufactured at Enviva’s Hamlet facility. Image courtesy of Enviva 2021
But I thought biomass was a transition fuel?
Biomass can be used in the energy transition, but its applications go far beyond the rapid phase-out of coal from the power industry. Biomass also offers an energy solution for heavy industries which require intense, uninterrupted heat and power. Biomass is a critical pathway for decarbonizing difficult-to-abate industries such as steel, cement, lime, chemicals and aviation fuels.
Today, energy-intensive companies, and those requiring high heat, cannot use wind or solar power, as both suffer from intermittency, and neither can currently offer the necessary heat intensity. Given that wood pellets are the only renewable energy fuel available today that can generate both power and high-temperature heat, they serve as the ideal solution. Over the last year, domestic and international steel companies have been exploring incorporating bioenergy solutions into their business models. Currently, coal is used as an energy source and reducing agent to de-oxidize ferrous ore in steelmaking. In this instance, biomass can substitute coke in the process. Additionally, biomass as an energy source can provide energy security — and a stable cost base for manufacturers.
In sugar production and cement-making, biomass can be used for drying and clinker production. In the chemicals industry, both energy substitution and material substitution can occur. Due to its bio-carbon structure, woody biomass is a substitute for fossil-based base chemicals, and for syngas, biomethane, ammonia, ethanol and process steam applications. Presently, biomass is the only route to decarbonize heavy industry — hydrogen shows promise, but it is not yet available. As it relates to the development of the hydrogen economy, biomass is expected to remain essential in developing hydrogen at scale, and will continue to evolve into other critical roles.
此外，生物质已经成为创新的验证领导者，采用突破性技术来提供负面排放。生物质行业将是最早采用碳捕获和存储（BECC）的行业之一。实际上，皇家学会和皇家工程学院已经估计，BECC可以在2050年到2050年英国捕获50megatonsof CO2，约有一半的国家排放目标。有了正确的创新和工程，重工业可以达到负面影响，并有助于从大气中清除碳。 If we are to deliver a 6.7 percent annual reduction in emissions by 2050 — as required to achieve net zero — negative emissions are essential, and sustainably sourced biomass is mission-critical.
利用可持续采购的生物质是减轻气候变化的重要解决方案。为了实现最大的影响，政府，行业和投资者必须采取行动。政府必须提供一个监管框架，以允许重工业脱碳，投资者必须具有监管确定性以部署大量资本。重工业必须具有支持性的监管框架和投资资本，以提供长期计划和使用可再生能源资源的信心。
