Conservation groups are dismayed by the NSW Government’s rejection of the recommendations of the parliamentary inquiry 'to prevent the burning of wood from native forests to generate energy' and exclude its being classed as renewable energy.

Contrary to the Government’s claims of moving to net zero carbon and doubling Koala populations, burning native forests for electricity puts us and Koalas on an extinction trajectory, said North East Forest Alliance spokesperson Dailan Pugh.

The recent NSW parliamentary inquiry into ‘Sustainability of energy supply and resources in New South Wales’ found the burning of forest biomass for power generation is “not economically or environmentally sustainable, and it generates significant carbon emissions”, recommending “the government takes steps to declassify forest biomass as a form of renewable energy and ensure it's not eligible for renewable energy credits”.

“On Monday the NSW Government showed its disregard for both climate heating and koalas by dismissing the committee’s recommendations on the grounds that they think its fine to burn native forests as long as some sawlogs are also removed.

“This opens up north-east NSWs forests, one of the world’s centres of both species diversity and endemism, for woodchipping on the scale of the Eden forests, where over 90% of the trees are logged for woodchips” Mr. Pugh said.

“This is particularly distressing as several companies are currently vying to use our native forests to replace coal for generating electricity”, said North Coast Environment Council spokesperson Susie Russell.

“Verdant Earth Technologies want to restart the mothballed Redbank power station near Singleton. It will burn over a million tonnes of wood a year, most of it from native forests, and Sweetman Renewables claim to have inked a contract to export native forest woodchips to Japan to be burnt for electricity generation.

“Burning trees for electricity is more polluting than coal, and pretending it’s renewable energy with no carbon emissions is a frighteningly dangerous fallacy.

“We are in a climate emergency, at current rates of emissions within 8 years we will have burnt through our carbon budget and have no chance of limiting global warming to 1.5^oC. We need to start reducing our emissions right now, by transitioning to genuine renewables with no carbon emissions. We need to stop burning stuff for electricity generation.

“It’s essential to leave our forests standing so that they can go on taking carbon out of the atmosphere and help clean up our mess.

“By supporting business as usual logging and dismissing the Inquiry’s recommendations, the Government has missed yet another opportunity to lower emissions, support genuine renewables and stop the decline of koalas to extinction”, Ms Russell said.