The New Biomassters - Convention on Biological Diversity

Introduction: Beware Biomass
Around the world, corporate and government strategies
to address climate change, energy, agriculture, technology
and materials production are increasingly converging
around one telling concept: Biomass.
Biomass encompasses over 230 billion tonnes of living
stuff 2 that the Earth produces every year, such as trees,
bushes, grasses, algae, grains, microbes, and more. This
annual bounty, known as the Earth’s ‘primary
production,’ is most abundant in the global South – in
tropical oceans, forests and fast growing grasslands –
sustaining the livelihoods, cultures and basic needs of
most the world’s inhabitants. So far, human beings use
only one quarter (24%) of terrestrial (land-based)
biomass for basic needs and industrial production 3
and hardly any oceanic biomass, leaving 86
percent of the planet’s full biomass
production (both land and sea) as yet
uncommodified.
But, thanks to technological
changes – particularly in the fields
of nanotechnology and synthetic
biology – this biomass can now
be targeted by industry as a source
of living ‘green’ carbon to
supplement or partially replace the
‘black’ fossil carbons of oil, coal and gas
that currently underpin Northern industrial
economies. From generating electricity to
producing fuels, fertilizers and chemicals, shifts are
already underway to claim biomass as a critical
component in the global industrial economy. Part I of
this report provides an overview of the current situation
and what the emergence of a so-called <strong>New</strong> Bioeconomy
means for people, livelihoods and the environment. Part
II provides a snapshot of the “<strong>New</strong> <strong>Biomassters</strong>” – the
industrial players and the technologies they are
harnessing.
Biomass:
Living (or once living) stuff;
narrowly refers to the weight of
living matter (plants, animals,
bacteria, fungi, etc.) found in a specific
area. Now used by industry to refer to
the use of non-fossilized biological and
waste materials as a feedstock for
the production of fuels,
chemicals, heat and
power.
What is being sold as a benign and beneficial switch from
black carbon to green carbon is in fact a red
Note on units:
Biomass in the making Photo: Asea
hot resource grab (from South to North)
to capture a new source of wealth. If
the grab succeeds, then plundering
the biomass of the South to
cheaply run the industrial
economies of the North will be an
act of 21st century imperialism
that deepens injustice and worsens
poverty and hunger. Moreover,
pillaging fragile ecosystems for their
carbon and sugar stocks is a
murderous move on an already
overstressed planet. Instead of embracing the
false promises of a new clean green bioeconomy, civil
society should reject the new biomassters and their latest
assault on land, livelihoods and our living world.
In this report, tonne refers to 1 metric tonne = 1000 kg
(2204.6 pounds); ton refers to 1 short ton = 2000 pounds
(907.2 kg); 1 billion = 1000 million
<strong>The</strong> <strong>New</strong> <strong>Biomassters</strong> 1