The Paris Agreement’s goal of 1.5°C in focus, more than 40 countries pledge to phase out coal by 2040.
Coal without carbon capture, mitigation or set off is the most polluting fossil fuel. Coal is also very handy, as transport and storage are easy. This makes it more difficult to phase out and establish low-carbon alternative fuels. Sustainably sourced biomass feedstocks are such an alternative, as they can also be stored, transported and used easily whenever needed. The big difference is the carbon cycle. Fossil fuels took hundreds of millions of years to build and emmit carbondioxid without taking it up in the near future. Sustainably sourced biomass introduces new carbon into the biosphere like coal does. However, new growing trees store the amount emitted from burning. The additional carbon from processing and transport can be sett off with other instruments as they will rely on fossil fuels for some time. Some coal stations have been converted to operate on biomass, which improves the environmental footprint of these facilities significantly while saving jobs and keeping infrastructure costs low.
The housing industry has a huge carbon saving potential. Bioenergy is a useful way to remove coal and gas from the these energy systems without increasing energy security risks. Bioenergy makes an excellent base load compared to wind and solar, as it is available independent from the weather.
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