As European Union policymakers move to finalize revisions to the Renewable Energy Directive in coming weeks, forest advocates continue calling for tougher regulations that would reduce the amount of woody biomass for energy used and slash the billions in EU subsidies that encourage the transformation of native forests into wood pellets for burning.

The advocates’ arguments have been given a boost by a recent commentary published in Nature arguing that the EU’s overarching goal of reducing emissions by 55% by 2030 is being thwarted by land-use policies that encourage the diversion of vast quantities of European cropland and forests to bioenergy, thus undermining habitat conservation and carbon storage in both Europe and overseas.