Dr. Eugene Hendrick:

I am involved in some initiatives around the question of emissions from wood fuels, including smoky wood fuels. The wood fuel quality assurance scheme, which is operated by Ervia, certifies wood suppliers that meet certain standards. Anyone who wishes to become a member of the International Standards Organisation's standard on wood fuels - ISO 17225 - has to provide wood fuel firewood with a moisture content of 25% or less. There is very good evidence to show that if we reduce the moisture content of wood fuels in Ireland from 30% firewood to 20%, which is eminently achievable, we can reduce particulate emissions by a factor of two or three. As we all know, there is a lot of wood fuel out on the market that has a moisture content of considerably more than 30%. If we combine the use of proper combustion technologies with the new ecodesign regulation, which is coming in on 1 January 2020 with regard to boilers and from 1 January 2022 with regard to wood stoves, there will be a considerable reduction in emissions from wood combustion. The point I want to make is that there are answers.