Joint Wood Energy Enquiry
The UNECE/FAO Forestry and Timber Section, with the encouragement of the Joint ECE/FAO Working Party on Forest Statistics, and in collaboration with the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the European Commission (EC) decided in June 2006 to develop and launch a "Joint Wood Energy Enquiry".
Wood energy data are often scattered or lost within renewable energy statistics, making it difficult to assess and evaluate the real role of wood as a renewable source of energy.
The Enquiry aims at improving knowledge and understanding of wood energy consumption and tries to shed light on the potential and future perspective of wood energy in the region.
It collects data of both sources and uses of wood and promotes cooperation between the energy and forest sectors, providing a comprehensive framework on the role of wood energy in Member States.
2013 Joint Wood Energy Enquiry
According to the results of the enquiry (40MB):
Situation in 2013
Overall wood energy accounts for 3.5% of the total primary energy supply (+0.2 compared to 2011) and 38.2% of the renewable energy supply (-0.2) in 26 UNECE region countries in 2013, continuing its role as the leading source of renewable energy. Around 47% of all mobilized woody biomass supply (+7.0) is used for energy purposes. (26 countries: Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Republic of Moldova, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the United Kingdom and the United States)
Main trends 2007-2013
It was possible to identify trends in the use of wood energy and to provide a comparison by selecting the 12 countries that have responded to consecutive rounds of the enquiry (12 countries: Austria, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Serbia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). Between 2007 and 2013, the volume of wood used for energy purposes within this group of countries grew from 193 to 256 million m3, an annual growth rate of 5%. The role of wood in total primary energy supply increased from 4.4% to 5.8% while the share of wood energy among renewable energy sources decreased from 50.1% to 48.6%.
The JWEE2013 was launched in January 2015 and completed in December 2015. A presentation was made at the 2015 Joint ECE/FAO Working Party on Forest Statistics indicating the status of the work up to that time.