On Monday, March 4th, 2019 a precedent-setting case was filed with the European General Court in Luxembourg challenging the treatment of forest biomass as a renewable fuel in the European Union’s 2018 revised Renewable Energy Directive (known as RED II). The case argues that RED II will accelerate widespread forest devastation and significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions by not counting CO2 emissions from burning wood fuels.

The plaintiffs – a group of individuals and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from Estonia, France, Ireland, Romania, Slovakia, and the USA – contend that including forest biomass as a source of renewable energy in the Directive is incompatible with the environmental objectives of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

Earlier this year, the EUBiomass Case was rejected by the court, reducing the chances for revised legislation on biomass. On Wednesday, February 10th, starting from 18.00 GMT+2, we discuss the outcome and its implications with Mary Booth, director and founder of the US-based NGO Partnership for Policy Integrity, who served as Senior Science and Policy Advisor and also provided a witness statement, and Raul Cazan, founder of 2Celsius, the Romanian plaintiff in the case. The discussion will be in English and moderated by Roxana Bucată.

The webinar will be streamed live on Facebook and will be available later on Youtube. Viewers are welcome to post comments and questions for the speakers: https://fb.me/e/1SSVqCeru