Asked by: Alun Cairns (Conservative - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she plans to take to help develop the UK's biomass industry.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Government intends to publish a Biomass Strategy later this year, which will review the amount of sustainable biomass, including perennial energy crops and short rotation forestry, available to the UK. The Strategy will examine how biomass could be best used across the economy to help achieve the Government’s net zero and wider environmental commitments, while also supporting energy security.
The Government announced £36 million of funding for the Biomass Feedstocks Innovation programme, funded through the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. The Programme aims to increase the production of sustainable biomass feedstocks in the UK by funding innovative ideas that address barriers to biomass feedstock production. The knowledge developed from these projects will help to inform future policy on domestic biomass.