Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 13 November 2018
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action
Third Report of the Citizens' Assembly: Discussion (Resumed)
3:00 pm
Mr. Charles Shier:
No, I do not. I can say in principle that for biomass to be sustainable, the carbon footprint of the supply chain must be a certain percentage below what the Europeans call a fossil fuel comparator, which is a figure set for everybody across Europe. Obviously, energy is spent getting biomass harvested and processed. I refer, for example to the chipping and transportation of materials. No comparison is made with the fuel being replaced, such as peat. A comparison is made with the average emission for the European grid, based on gas and coal plants in the European system. It is 183 MJ-----