By NOEL MURPHY
BURNING native forest timber should be excluded from Australia’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme, according to Otways environmentalists.
“Our native forests and wildlife are further threatened by the re-introduction of burning native forest wood waste as a renewable energy source in the RET scheme following Environment Minister Greg Hunt’s Renewable Energy (Electricity) Amendment Bill,” said Otway Conservation Association’s Fiona Nelson.
“This overturned the 2011 amendment made by ALP government excluding native forest wood waste from the RET.”
Ms Nelson said burning native timber for energy produced up to three times more carbon dioxide emissions than coal-fired power.
Accelerating industrial-style native forest logging to provide local and international markets with whole logs, wrongly considered as waste, would destroy habitat and lead to the extinction of native species, she said.
“Destroying our forests for biomass is a way of propping up the declining logging industry.
“We are disappointed that our federal MP Sarah Henderson has been silent on this issue which, along with forests across Victoria and the rest of Australia, could directly affect our precious and ‘protected’ Otway forests. We would like to know where she sits with this.
“Our forests are carbon stores, homes for wildlife, water producers and purifiers, and tourist destinations, not fuel for furnaces.”
Ms Henderson said she was a strong advocate for the RET, lobbying both sides of politics in support of the Clean Energy Council to secure a deal on the scheme.
“This is now delivering investment certainty in the renewable energy industry and securing thousands of jobs,“ she said.
“Consistent with the (federal) government’s election commitment, native forest wood waste will be reinstated in the legislation as an eligible source of renewable energy. This was recommended in a review by the Climate Change Authority in 2012.
“This change does not allow the cutting down of native forests to burn, so claims by the Otways Conservation Association that this will allow the burning of native forest are false.
“The use of native forest wood waste for electricity generation is more beneficial to the environment than burning the waste alone or simply allowing it to decompose.“
Ms Henderson said that in all cases, the supply of native forest wood waste was subject to Commonwealth and State and Territory planning and environmental approval processes.
She said the Government was confident legislation currently before the Senate would be passed in the coming days.
