Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, (a) in what way his Department defines ‘sustainable biomass’ and (b) whether that definition takes into account any impact on the health of people living near to the source of the relevant biomass.

The Government defines sustainable biomass as biomass that is cultivated, harvested and processed in line with our sustainability criteria. The UK has stringent sustainability criteria in place for the power, heat and transport sectors, and supports the use of biomass only where it is demonstrated to be sustainable and deliver genuine greenhouse gas (GHG) savings compared to fossil materials.

The sustainability criteria cover environmental and social aspects, and requires an understanding of the life-cycle GHG emissions including supply chain emissions (transporting, processing etc), biodiversity, ecosystem services (e.g., soil and water quality) and social issues (e.g. land tenure rights, labour rights).