European Union nations are consuming wood, or “biomass,” to meet their obligations under the Paris climate agreement. In 2009, the European Union committed to a 20 percent renewable energy mandate by 2020, and allowed biomass sources to help make up that mandate. Several European countries (e.g., the United Kingdom and the Netherlands), subsidized the biomass industry, quickly creating a market for wood. The United States, Canada, and Eastern Europe supply the market by processing wood products into pellets and heat-drying them in kilns. By 2014, biomass accounted for 40 percent of the European Union’s renewable ... (full story)