Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad | 17 october 2026

Anyone who still thinks ‘this’ is on the way out is mistaken

It is good to see the Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad (FD) devote extensive coverage this weekend to an issue that has concerned us for years: destroying forests to produce our so-called “green energy”. And this is not a practice on its way out, but one that is entering a new phase. The FD presents the views of RWE, the Dutch Emissions Authority (NEa), Professor Martin Junginger, and The Clean Air Committee | Forests For Future side by side. Rightly so. But giving different viewpoints equal space does not mean that the underlying facts carry equal weight.

What do we learn?

  1. RWE has “100% confidence” in its biomass. But why? The NEa itself identified incorrectly classified wood and “serious vulnerabilities” in the control system. Meanwhile, RWE is seeking further public funding to switch coal-fired power plants to wood.
  2. The Dutch Emissions Authority (NEa) acknowledges that inspectors were not required to verify the origin of “waste wood”. Yet it concluded that the pellets met the legal sustainability requirements. Since when has complying with a flawed monitoring system been the same as being demonstrably sustainable?
  3. Professor Martin Junginger repeats the familiar story of a forest regenerating itself. But his hypothetical “hundred trees” are no proof of what is actually happening in forests, including those in the Baltic states, the United States and Malaysia. Junginger was also involved for many years in the standards committee of biomass certifier SBP and led research in which RWE participated as an industry partner. This is relevant background when assessing his scientific interpretation.
  4. Zembla – BNNVARA actually traced the wood back to the forest. And found tropical logs, whole trees and clear-cutting. Precisely the reality that The Clean Air Committee and Biofuelwatch have been highlighting for years.
  5. A police investigation into RWE is now underway, following our criminal complaint. The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) is also investigating possible violations.
  6. And now BECCS is supposed to be the next climate solution? RWE has already been promised approximately €2.3 billion in biomass subsidies. How much more public money must be committed before we first demand independent evidence?

For this reason, The Clean Air Committee has also begun preparations for a biomass lawsuit against the Dutch State.

After years of research and legal proceedings, in collaboration with national and international forest protection organisations, a fundamental question is now on the table: How can the government spend billions on so-called “sustainable energy” when it cannot independently demonstrate what is being burned in our power plants, or establish the true and devastating impacts on the climate and nature?

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Read the article in Dutch newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad