EVENT KREISLÄUFE SCHLIESSEN – CLOSING THE LOOPS Held at the end of October in Bruck/ Mur, in the forest rich province of Styria, Austria, the 19th Austrian Biomass Day was aptly hosted at the 110-year old Technical Forestry High School. The two-day event also marked and celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Austrian Biomass Association (ABA). This gave ample opportunity to take stock of what has been achieved and what needs to be done. THE AUSTRIAN BIOMASS ASSOCIATION (ABA) has a lot to celebrate. Hosting the event at a venue with a long tradition and well-established links to the bioenergy sectors in Austria in a province with 61 percent forest cover was aptly fitting. Founded on 20 April 1995 by the Austrian stalwart of bioenergy Dr Heinz Kopetz, who now presides over the Stockholm based World Bioenergy Association (WBA), ABA had set the goal for bioenergy in Austria to 203 PJ by 2010, which represented a 44 percent increase compared to 2005 levels. Biomass - largest and fastest growing renewable This has been achieved. Renewables and wastes in Austria account for about 26 percent of the country’s energy end use. Bioenergy holds a share of over 60 percent of this, 216 PJ in 2013, and displays the biggest growth of all renewables. A 25 percent increase from that level until 2020 is the current goal and in 2030 bioenergy is expected to contribute to one third of end-energy use in Austria. ABA has also impacted the in- 44 Bioenergy International No 83, 7-2015 ternational bioenergy scene with its successful central-European biomass conferences, the most recent of which, as reported in Bioenergy International no. 2/2014, was held in 2014 in Graz and attracted over 1100 delegates from over 45 countries. Low climate ambitions Although Austria is perceived by many as a champion of bioenergy, not least due the formidable international success of Austrian pellet and woodchip home heating appliances, Austrian climate targets show low ambition paired with a lack of political will to implement sufficient supportive measures. Austria has currently an emissions reduction target of for 16 percent for 2020 from 2005 levels. This is in fact only 4 percent reduction from 1990 levels and recent estimates show that Austria is amongst the countries off track on achieving even this goal. Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have actually slightly increased over the 1990 levels and with 9.5t CO2-emissions per capita (in 2012) Austria is above EU28-average. Decoupling failure initiates action Furthermore, at the time of writing, Austria is still lacking a climate goal for the period after 2020. So far the country has experienced a 2°C average temperature increase above pre-industrial levels compared to the global increase average of 0.85°C. A more tangible indicator are the number of so-called tropical days, days where temperatures rise above 30°C. Such days have more than quadrupled in some regions in Austria since the 1960s. Another important indicator is that Austria, unlike most OECD countries, did not manage to decouple energy consumption from BNP growth over the last decade. The Austrian government has though implemented a number of measures. In 2012 the renewable energy law, Ökostromgesetz (ÖSG), which provides investment subsidies paired with different Feed in Tariffs (FiTs) for different renewable technologies was updated. FiTs are guaranteed for a time period of 15 years for bioenergy and 13 years for other renewables. These FiTs vary around EUR 0.1/kWh and allow new technologies, such as micro-CHP to emerge. The aim of the ÖSG is to achieve the goal of 34 percent renewables in the national energy mix by 2020 (31 percent in 2010). The newly enacted Energy Efficiency Law (EEffG, 2015) shall contribute to the decoupling-efforts of Austrias energy consumption from economic growth. The EEffG has been heavily criticized from the bioenergy industry due to its lack of ambition, especially the exchange of older oil-heating systems to newer and more efficient oil-heaters is supported through this law until 2018, which is seen as a continuation of the status quo – more than 700 000 households in Austria still heat their homes with fossil oil. ABA along with the renewable energy sector is forming a coalition to advocate for more ambitious national goals on emissions reductions and for renewables, where the introduction of a CO2-tax shall become the Speakers at 19th Austrian Biomass Day, (left) Robert Fischer, Swedish Bioenergy Association (Svebio) with Johann Seitinger, State Councillor and Josef Plank, President, Austrian Biomass Association (ABA).
Bioenergy International no 7 December 2015
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