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We need to protect the earth’s life support systems. Two German environmental NGOs, Deutsche Umwelthilfe and ROBIN WOOD, have an important concern in this regard: Supported by German forester and author Peter Wohlleben, we want to prevent the burning of wood in converted coal plants in Germany as it is about to happen in Wilhelmshaven and Hamburg. Please help us by signing this petition, which will be sent to the plant operators and the Environment Ministries of the respective German state governments. Help to stop the plans for wood burning in Germany coal plants!

It sounds like a bad joke: In Germany, coal plants are to be converted so that they can start firing gigantic amounts of imported wood from industrial-scale logging operations. This might help realise the coal phase-out, but would continue causing major harm to the planet. The earth’s life support systems, on which humans, animals and plants depend, need to be protected, not destroyed and burned!

Example Hamburg: In Namibia, bushes are to be cut down across an area the size of Italy, and most of the wood is to be exported to supply coal power plants such as the Tiefstack plant in Hamburg.  This is the plan of the Ministry of Environment, Climate, Energy and Agriculture of Hamburg. It cannot be shown that such a conversion would have a positive climate effect, nor can serious harms to Namibia’s natural environment be ruled out. We therefore strongly reject this proposal. In a devastating assessment, Professor Dr Pierre Ibisch from the University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde states: “The current state of knowledge in no way supports the assumption that a sustainable export of bush biomass from Namibia is possible and reasonable - certainly not if the aim is to contribute to climate protection!”

Example Wilhelmshaven: Up to 2.9 million tonnes of wood pellets from the USA could be burned in a converted coal power station in Wilhelmshaven according to plans by the plant operators, Onyx Power Group. A particular scandal: such industrial-scale burning of wood is to take place in a German state that has an enormous potential for wind and solar power.  What is more, biodiverse forests in the coastal Southeastern USA are being cut down and converted to sterile tree monocultures in order to produce wood pellets.

Protecting natural ecosystems such as forests and savannahs is vital for the conservation of biodiversity as well as important natural carbon sinks. These ecosystems must not be irretrievably damaged or destroyed in order to burn wood in coal plants. We therefore call on the environment ministries responsible: Stop the plans for burning wood in large power plants!

Behind those proposals are often profit-hungry corporations such as Onyx, who are already heavily engaged in lobbying to create a €1 billion pot out of taxpayers’ money to finance these plant conversions. Plans for such a subsidy scheme are already on the table in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Don’t allow plant operators to replace one environmental ill with another and, to make matters worse, cash in on public subsidies for doing so.

+++ Please support us and say NO to burning wood in converted coal plants! Every voice counts when it comes to preventing the destruction of valuable ecosystems! +++

Deutsche Umwelthilfe, ROBIN WOOD and Peter Wohlleben

#biomassdelusion