Mr. Charles Stanley-Smith:

A mistake was made in the days of the Kyoto Protocol that biomass was zero carbon. That mistake has permeated into European law. In our opinion it is wrong. The power station at Drax in the United Kingdom which is being converted to run on biomass is running on biomass imported from the United States and obtained in the cutting down of virgin forests.

No attempt is being made to regrow those forests, which would get the thing back. Mr. St. Ledger has spoken about the whole business of how long it takes to recover the carbon by regrowing the trees. In eastern Europe, virgin forests are being cut down to provide so-called biomass. If there is any sustainable biomass in the world, it is already being burnt locally. There is none left for any other country to buy on the world market.