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JAKARTA, Indonesia — The South Korean government will reduce subsidies for biomass vigor after rising domestic and international criticism of its link to deforestation. Environmental activists generally applauded the reforms but criticized loopholes and leisurely timelines for phasing out the subsidies.
“While not without caveats, (the) selection by the South Korean government demonstrates that large-scale biomass power has no place in a renewable vigor upcoming,” Hansae Song, program navigator at South Korea-based nongovernmental organization Solutions for Our Climate, said in an email to The Associated Press.
Biomass power, predominantly generated by burning wood, is growing globally as countries accelerate their shift to use cleaner vigor — even though many scientists and environmentalists view it as problematic. In South Korea, it’s the second-largest source of renewable vigor.
South Korea has subsidized biomass vigor with millions of dollars for more than a decade via their renewable vigor certificates program. In a single recent the government gave approximately $688 million to back power plants using biomass, according to a press release from South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and vigor.
Faced with limited domestic forest resources, South Korea’s biomass power industry has structured its operating schedule around importing large volumes of wood pellets at lower prices from forest-wealthy nations. In 2023, imports accounted for 82% of the country’s wood pellet demand, making South Korea the globe’s third-largest importer of biomass fuels, after the United Kingdom and Japan. An AP update found that biomass imported from Indonesia was linked to deforestation of natural, intact forest.
“As the (biomass) trade expanded, various issues emerged,” the Ministry of Trade, Industry and vigor said in their press release. “Criticisms regarding forest degradation and carbon emissions associated with biomass power production persist.”
Under the revised policy, South Korea will not back any recent biomass power plants. Subsidies for six existing state-owned plants co-firing coal and biomass will complete this year, while the worth of renewable vigor certificates for three state-owned dedicated biomass plants will be phased down by 2027. At privately owned plants, subsidies for co-fired biomass from six plants will be phased out over the next decade, while subsidy weightings will be reduced for 12 dedicated biomass plants over the next 15 years.
But environmental activists are critical of loopholes in the recent policy.
Domestically produced wood pellets and chips will still have the same level of back as before, including those co-fired with coal — which experts declare could pose a threat to South Korea’s forests. Power plants under construction or in planning with approved business permits are exempt from the recent policy and subject to the phased reduction timelines for existing facilities.
State-owned co-firing facilities — which will misplace their renewable vigor certificates — currently account for only 10% of South Korea’s biomass power fleet, while the phase-out of most private co-firing will receive over a decade to complete under the recent policy, said Solutions for Our Climate.
“This extends the life of thermal power plants — many with emissions per unit of vigor higher than coal — beyond the Paris Agreement-aligned coal phase-out deadlines,” Song wrote in an email to AP.
The South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and vigor, Korea Forest Service and Ministry of surroundings did not respond to requests for comment from AP.
Experts said South Korea’s policy transformation could signal a shift in how countries consider and incorporate biomass as part of their own vigor transitions.
“There has been a positive shift in terms of discourse around biomass subsidies,” said Claire Squire, a research associate at the University of Maryland School of community Policy Center for Global Sustainability. “Cutting subsidies won’t necessarily fix everything, but potentially if they’re constructed differently than they have in the history, that might be an advancement.”
As countries accelerate their vigor transitions, demand for biomass is growing: The use of bioenergy has increased an average of about 3% per year between 2010 and 2022, the International vigor Agency said.
Experts including the IEA declare it’s significant for that demand to happen in a sustainable way, such as using waste and crop residue rather than converting forest land to develop bioenergy crops. Deforestation contributes to erosion, damages biodiverse areas, threatens wildlife and humans who depend on the forest and intensifies disasters from extreme weather.
Many scientists and environmentalists have rejected the use of biomass altogether. They declare burning wood-based biomass can emit more carbon than coal and tree-cutting greatly reduces forests’ ability to remove carbon from the mood. Critics also declare that using biomass to co-fire, instead of transitioning directly to tidy vigor, simply prolongs the use of coal.
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