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| Wood pellets for fuel |
Rising demand for wood fuel worldwide, including in the UK, is helping to increase the number of foreign-owned plantations in developing countries, at the cost of food security, according to a new report from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
According to the report, projected demand for wood chips and pellets in the UK is likely to exceed - by five or six times - the indigenous supply of ten million tonnes a year.
This adds weight to the arguments against the proposed biomass power station in the Dundee Docks. The developers of that plant claim they will source their supplies from the Baltic and North America. The map below shows that already the growing demand for biomass supplies from countries in the north is extending to sourcing from countries in the south; encroaching on agricultural land and reducing food supplies where there is already food insecurity.
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Land areas under known tree plantations wholly or partly for biomass energy in the global South.
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I hope SNP ministers in the Scottish Government will bear this in mind when they come to make the final decision about whether to approve this power station or not. While we already know about the health risks of those that will live downwind of this plant, this report from IIED makes it clear that the health risks will also be borne in developing countries through increased food prices and food scarcity.
A biomass power station in Dundee is neither healthy or sustainable for Scotland nor for countries where we will eventually end up sourcing the wood pellet supply.
