Intensivere Holzenergienutzung in Europa: Politik- und Forschungsaspekte

Abstract

Increased use of wood energy in Europe: policy and research issues The contrasting and often conflicting objectives associated with the increased use of bioenergy resources pose significant political and regulatory challenges across Europe. In the EU, wood energy use is not regulated in a dedicated directive, but is part of a variety of directives with different foci, and the individual EU member states implement these directives in very different ways. The challenges lie, on the one hand, in the harmonization of policies, standards and regulation and, on the other hand, in measures for efficiency improvements and minimization of adverse side effects of wood energy use. In this paper, the current EU bioenergy and wood energy legislative framework and specific policies are presented and current research themes in the context of the European wood energy policy highlighted, with a special emphasis on cascadic use of wood resources. It can be concluded that sustainable material and energy use of wood is subject to many restrictions, and that although cascadic use contributes to resource efficiency and CO2 mitigation, it may also affect the prevailing market structures significantly.