Guest column: Renewable wood energy is a solution to climate change
I had the privilege of founding Enviva over 15 years ago with the simple purpose of fighting climate change with effective solutions that could be implemented immediately.
Today, Enviva is the world’s largest producer of wood pellets, a renewable alternative to coal, and wood-based bioenergy is part of an all-in renewables strategy to reduce carbon emissions and limit dependence on fossil fuels
Unfortunately, a number of papers this month published a series on renewable wood energy and Enviva, seeking to tell a very different story of the role we play in fighting climate change. To be clear: we welcome rigorous journalism, but such reporting must be based on a balanced view of the facts and science, not anti-forestry activism.
So, a few facts about bioenergy and Enviva:
The world’s leading authority on climate science is the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The IPCC explicitly recognizes bioenergy as a renewable energy source that is a critical to our low-carbon future. It includes bioenergy in every single one of its proposed pathways to limit warming to 1.5°C. The IPCC also concludes that sustainable forest management, aimed at providing products like timber, fiber, and bioenergy, is critical to preventing forest conversion to non-forest uses.
Support for bioenergy also comes from numerous other international experts, including the International Renewable Energy Agency, the European Forest Institute, the U.S. National Association of University Forest Resource Programs, to name a few.
Justin Catanoso and Saul Elbein, two writers in this series with a history of opposing our industry, conveniently failed to mention the longstanding and widespread support for renewable wood energy. In fact, bioenergy has been endorsed by the US Environmental Protection Agency under both Democratic and Republican administrations. More recently, a group of 100 forest scientists and the International Energy Agency joined the IPCC in embracing the environmental benefits of wood bioenergy.
Our industry is a critical part of maintaining healthy forests. Today, in the southeast U.S., private forest owners grow 40% more wood than they remove every year.
That makes sense: Demand for forest products like bioenergy raises the value landowners receive by keeping their land as managed forests. Absent strong demand, landowners have the incentive to convert their forest land to agriculture or to housing or strip malls.
We strive to be a good partner in the communities where we live and work, for instance by voluntarily investing in new emission control equipment well beyond legal requirements.
Most importantly, we are proud of our employees and the contributions they make in their communities. This past October, standing beside Governor Bryant, we broke ground on a new facility in George County that will employ 90 full-time workers and is estimated to create another 200 indirect jobs. Enviva’s Mississippi facilities, both existing and planned, are expected to support 750 direct and indirect jobs. We are currently investing over $200 million in the George County facility along with a new deep water marine terminal at the Port of Pascagoula.
We appreciate the support we have received from Mississippi and look forward to working together to fight climate change.
John Keppler is the Chairman and CEO of Enviva