This is a pretty good breakdown of the insanity that is the transatlantic wood pellet energy trade. 

U.N. carbon accounting rules count the CO2 from losing a tree in the country where it’s cut down. So when American trees are milled into pill-sized pellets and shipped to, for example, England to be burned in a power plant, the British can claim its carbon-free power — even though they’re burning twice as much to compensate for the more energy-dense coal they’re replacing. 

This scam has been allowed to continue, however, in part because the typical pro-climate bloc in Europe — ie Nordic countries — all have big timber industries and haven’t wanted to crack down on a market. 

Meanwhile, the heavily-polluting pellet mills processing all these old-growth forests being felled in the American South are overwhelmingly located in poor, rural and mostly Black towns.

Reporter and writer. I cover energy, climate change and geopolitics. Contact me via my website www.alexanderckaufman.com and subscribe to kaufman.substack.com.

There is an amazing Volts podcast episode (with David Roberts) about how pellets should have never been included in the UN carbon accounting rules - especially since this industry is not only terrible but completely financially unsustainable without those credits.  It shouldn't exist!

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Yeah, I really love his podcasts. I've learnt so much about all sorts of things I never would have come across otherwise.