The EU’s forest and land carbon sinks are in steep decline, meaning the EU isn’t going to hit its legislated carbon sink targets. A big part of the reason for that decline is overharvesting – including for biomass fuel.
Now, the European Commission is developing a new “Bioeconomy Strategy” that will likely increase forest harvesting. PFPI has crafted draft comments on the Strategy.
It’s important to get the European Commission to listen to the science. Scientists and NGOs who work on forests and climate should consider responding to the EU’s consultation on the Bioeconomy Strategy.
It’s important to provide the Commission with clear, science-based, independent responses laying out how more forest harvesting will undermine the EU’s climate and nature goals.
Unless scientists weigh in, the majority of input to the consultation will come from bioeconomy lobbyists. At a recent Commission-sponsored webinar on the bioeconomy, the industry’s responses were predictable – calls for more harvesting, more extraction, and more “sustainable” harvesting – even though the EU’s current sustainability rules have done little to protect the EU’s forest and land carbon sink and its natural ecosystems.
Here’s how to submit your input:
- To submit a response, you must go here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/14555-Towards-a-circular-regenerative-and-competitive-bioeconomy_en
- On that page, there are two places you can submit feedback. You can fill out the Consultation Questionnaire, or you can submit a longer written comment to the Call for Evidence, or both.
- The yellow “Give Feedback” button is for the “call for evidence” – that will take you a place to submit a written comment, or upload a longer written comment.
- Or you can scroll down to the “Go to consultation” button – this will take you to the questionnaire, which you have to fill out online.
For background, please see PFPI’s draft response to the Commission’s call for evidence.
When you respond:
- Your input must be original. The Commission counts duplicate responses as constituting just one submission!
- You must create an EU login to comment, if you’ve not done that already
In summary:
- Visit the consultation page: EU Bioeconomy Strategy Consultation
- Register for an EU Login if you don’t already have one.
- Craft your unique comments – either submit a written response to the “call for evidence,” or fill out the online questionnaire, or both. Scroll down the page for the links to submit.
- Submit before the 23 June 2025 deadline.
Final comments as submitted are here.
