False climate solutions,…

False climate solutions, that’s what cutting down forests for energy is. This is what makes the biomass debate so urgent, and so dangerous.

The forestry industry's marketing of wood pellets (biomass) as a climate solution to replace fossil fuels is a false climate solution. Burning wood pellets is dirtier than coal at the smokestack. While wood pellets are supposed to be made from wood waste and dead trees, more and more whole trees from across Canada are being logged and exported to produce carbon loaded energy internationally.

We cannot afford false climate solutions that are marching us into planetary catastrophe while trampling Indigenous Sovereignty and crucial biodiversity. I demand better from the Ontario government and insist that they stop the expansion of this false climate solution in its tracks.

The following are key points that must be taken into consideration by the current Ontario government when drafting the “Draft Forest Biomass Action Plan”:

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 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.