SUBSIDIES FOR ELECTRICITY GENERATED FROM BIOMASS

That this House expresses its concern that renewable energy subsidies for electricity generated from biomass are resulting in damaging impacts diametrically opposite to intended policy outcomes for which those subsidies were instituted; notes that biomass damages forests and biodiversity, pollutes communities in source countries and at home and makes climate change worse; further notes that £827 million in biomass subsidies was paid out by the Government in 2017 amounting to more than £30 per household on average; believes that the Government should follow the logic of its recent decision to effectively end new subsidies for large-scale import-dependent biomass under Contracts for Difference; and calls on the Government to remove subsidies already granted for biomass under the Renewable Obligation Certificate scheme.