The Role of National Biomass Action Plans in Coordinating the National Bioenergy Activities

The EU has recently put forward an integrated proposal for “Climate Action – Energy for a Changing World”, which includes concrete measures on how to meet the ‘energy and climate change package’ targets of 2020. The challenge is how these targets can be reached, and how bioenergy can meet the expectations given to it. The EU Biomass Action Plan (BAP) emphasises the need for a coordinated approach to biomass policy and encourages Member States to establish national Biomass Action Plans (nBAPs), as they are seen as one of the key actions to boost the bioenergy market. This paper presents the drivers, process and the current state of nBAPs and discusses their definition and scope. Four national BAPs (of Estonia, Ireland, the Netherlands and the UK) are compared to yield understanding on the definition and scope of these plans. Two regional biomass action plans are also looked into (Scotland and Central Finland) to provide insight of the regional bioenergy strategy development. It can be concluded that common elements are found in the plans; however a holistic and integrated approach with a long-term view on biomass use is still largely missing.