North American open letter implores Japanese banks to ensure biomass sustainability

North American organisations have written an open letter to request that Japanese banks and power generation companies adopt a wood biomass climate and sustainability policy, or strengthen existing policies.

This will ensure communities' rights are better protected, fully disclose emissions from biomass use and ensure that primary or natural forests are not cut down for wood pellet production.

According to the letter, major pellet producers, including Drax, have too frequently skirted laws intended to protect residents from air pollution and dust, with a lengthy history of legal violations and penalties.

A recent investigation found that Drax's feedstock from US wood pellet facilities have broken environmental regulations over 11,000 times.
The open letter has several requests.

The letter calls on the banks to commit to the counting and disclosing of financed CO2 emissions from the full lifecycle of biomass power in accordance with the GHG Protocol, and require that recipients of project finance do the same.
It also asks power generators to confirm the fuel they use does not originate in primary or natural forests - including unused wood, waste wood and sawmill residue.

The letter calls on the organisations to stipulate the principle of cascading use of wood in their policies so as not to invest in power projects that utilise biomass fuel produced by the processing of whole trees.
As well as these, it wants banks to ensure biomass power plant operators verify that imported wood fuel does not contribute to forest degradation.

"Our organisations request an update on the status of your policy on biomass power by January 7, 2025," said the letter.

It was signed by organisations including Biofuelwatch, Biomass Working Group of the Pacific Northwest Forest Climate Alliance and Friends of the Earth US.