One of the main products of…

One of the main products of Ontario’s forest biomass industry is wood pellets. Wood pellets are marketed as a clean energy alternative, but we know that wood pellets are even dirtier than coal at the smokestack.

Increasing deforestation as a climate solution is not viable. While the government and industry claim that only waste wood is used to manufacture wood pellets, more whole trees from primary, boreal forests are being logged to meet the demands of this growing industry.

The Ontario government claims that expanding the wood pellet industry will provide alternative employment for fossil fuel workers, but these would be jobs in an industry that dumps more carbon into the atmosphere than what it's replacing.

Ontario is home to North America’s largest forest biomass-only electricity generating station. They claim that the province is a leader in the emerging green economy because of the ‘clean electricity’ produced from wood pellets, but we know that burning wood pellets is dirtier than coal at the smokestack. The Ontario government is using that as a key point to justify expanding the industry. They are intentionally deceiving the public to generate higher demand and open up new market pathways.

The Ontario government is also largely selling the forest biomass industry as a circular economy because they claim that it only uses “mill by-products” aka, waste wood, to manufacture wood pellets. However, many Canadian provinces including Ontario are logging whole trees from primary forests to meet the growing demand for wood pellets. One of the key objectives (objective 3) of this action plan includes, “streamline permitting and reduce regulatory burden for all sectors which use forest biomass,” which is concerning because that essentially means there would be fewer environmental checkpoints. Ontario has already gutted the Endangered Species Act, which is a key regulatory body.

The argument to expand the forest-biomass industry, particularly the wood pellet sector, to provide low-carbon jobs in replacement of fossil fuel jobs isn’t valid. Amidst an ever growing climate crisis, we simply can’t afford to keep chopping down forests to make a fuel that emits immense amounts of carbon dioxide. Moreover, it can take centuries for forests to regain the majority of their carbon storage after being logged. Once again, wood pellets are a false climate solution.

The great transition to an economy that runs on sustainability and respect for the future must happen. False climate solutions like wood pellets are not what we need. We must protect primary forests.